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A group known for its past blockchain fraud activities has reportedly launched a new scheme on Blast.
According to ZachXBT, a network detective, the group has moved approximately $1 million in laundered funds to Base to fuel their new scam.
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The anonymous group initially transferred the funds from an ethereum (eth) address linked to previous scams, from where they eventually found their way to another address on the Polygon network.
The alleged fraudsters then converted the assets into wrapped Ether (wETH) and moved them across multiple blockchain networks using bridging services such as Orbiter and Bungee.
Their strategy led them to the Blast network, where they allegedly funded an address that possibly belonged to Leaper Finance, an overcollateralized decentralized lending protocol.
ZachXBT characterizes these transfers as a sudden increase in liquidity intended to lure unsuspecting people.
At the same time, the blockchain researcher known for uncovering several scams in the cryptocurrency world noted that these same people are likely behind another Base project called ZebraLending, with a current total value locked (TVL) of approximately $311,000.
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ZachXBT claims that the group has a history of launching projects that attract substantial TVL and then disappearing with the funds. According to the researcher, scammers often falsify know-your-customer (KYC) documents and collaborate with dubious security auditing companies to appear legitimate.
Scam story
The group has targeted other platforms, including Avalanche (AVAX), ethereum, Arbitrum (ARB), and Solana (SOL), showing its adaptability and widespread presence on blockchain.
According to ZachXBT, scammers often grow their honeypot projects to seven-figure values before executing a heist and pocketing investors' funds. The blockchain sleuth pointed to past projects, including Solfire Finance on Solana, Lendora Protocol on Scroll, and Magnate Finance on Base, as the group's past works.
In the Magnate Finance incident, the group allegedly stole more than $6.5 million hours after ZachXBT, along with other security experts, raised the alarm about the project. In it sunfire scam, they took approximately $3 million.
Blast, a layer 2 (L2) network introduced by Blur founder Tieshun Roquerre, has recently been hit by several scams, exploits, and rug-pullings. In February, a project on the platform, RiskOnBlast, suffered a setback, resulting in a loss of around 500 eth.
In March, Super Sushi Samurai, a network-native blockchain game, suffered a token exploit just before its release. The team confirmed a $4.6 million exploit due to a smart contract bug, verified by on-chain security company CertiK.
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According to the Super Sushi team, the exploiter manipulated the game's smart contract to double token balances and mass sell them into its liquidity pool.
That same month, another Blast-based non-fungible token (nft) game, Munchables, suffered a $62 million exploit. Munchables acknowledged the breach and declared efforts to trace the exploiter's actions and stop the transactions.
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