A fake token bearing the same name as Ethena Labs’s ENA token has been exploited, resulting in the loss of 480 BNB tokens valued at $290,000 on the Binance launch pool for farming. The vulnerability that led to the exploit remains unidentified. PeckShield, an on-chain security firm, reported the incident on March 29 at 8:31 am UTC via a post on X, initially mistaking the fake token for the legitimate ENA token.
Ethena Labs officially announced its ENA token on the Binance Launchpool on March 29. However, shortly after the listing announcement, the exploit of the counterfeit token, unrelated to Ethena Labs, took place, causing significant confusion within the community.
Ethena Labs made headlines with the launch of its USDe synthetic dollar on the public mainnet on February 19. By March 8, Ethena became the top-performing decentralized application (DApp) in the crypto space, offering investors an impressive annual percentage yield (APY) of 67%.
While the value of funds lost in this exploit is relatively small compared to other crypto hacks, it contributes to the broader issue of eroding investor trust. In 2024 alone, over $200 million worth of crypto has been lost across 32 incidents as of February 29, according to blockchain security firm Immunefi. This marks a 15.4% increase from the same period in 2023.
Although 2023 saw a decline in the total value of funds lost to crypto hacks compared to 2022, the number of incidents increased. Notably, the decrease in decentralized finance (DeFi) hacking incidents contributed to the overall decline in stolen funds. Chainalysis attributes this drop to a significant decrease in the value stolen from DeFi protocols year-over-year, signaling a shift in the landscape of crypto crime.
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