Evil in the Shadows: Unveiling the Chaos in Ethereum’s Token Ecosystem

CertiK analyzed Telegram-promoted new-token activity and on-chain data from Oct 2023–Aug 2024 and found pervasive, organized rug-pull campaigns: ~93,930 tokens promoted via Telegram (46,526 flagged as rug pulls, ~49.5%), ~100,260 new Ethereum tokens observed (48,265 flagged, ~48.14%), and aggregated attacker profits of ~282,699.96 ETH (~$800M). The report describes attacker TTPs (backdoored ERC‑20 contracts, LP destruction, fund-splitting infrastructure contracts 0x1d39 and 0x6348, CEX-funded deployers), provides IoCs (addresses and tx hashes), quantifies victimization patterns and timelines (many rug pulls complete within hours), and gives operational recommendations for detection and mitigation.