Is Shiba Inu the next target for crypto hackers?

LAGOS (CoinChapter.com) — While the blockchain and decentralized finance (DeFi) industry is growing remarkably, so has crypto crime in the space also recorded an uptick.

In detail, following the recent exploit of play-to-earn Axie Infinity’s Ronin Network a developer has called out suspicious activity on Shiba Inu’s network.

Kaal Dhairya, a top developer on Shiba Inu’s protocol via a recent blog post issued a warning regarding hackers trying to infiltrate the “Shiba Inu: Deployer.” He identified some scam tokens on the meme token network that can be used to orchestrate malicious activities. He said:

“At first when I saw an incoming transaction of the $WERSE token into “Shiba Inu: Deployer 2” I was pleasantly surprised but did not dig […]. But upon looking deeper into the code I have found this is another scam (or clever marketing).”

Dhairya explained that the fraudsters have crafted code specifically designed to emit malicious events about the actual sender and recipient. He noted that the smart contract will disguise these scam tokens and allow them access to prominent wallets.

The developer urged Shiba Inu’s community to beware of the malicious fraudulent activities and to always check only official channels for announcements.

Shiba Inu Previous Hack Attempts

Furthermore, it is worth noting that this is not the first time hackers will attempt to infiltrate Shiba Inu’s network.

In November last year, Shiba Inu’s developers warned its community of scams targeted at them by scammers. The team stressed that it doesn’t offer any giveaways or airdrops, asking them to be wary of such offers.

Also, blockchain security firm PeckShield recently detected a fake Shiba Inu token that was reportedly issued on the Tron blockchain.

Crypto Hackers Have Stolen Over $1bn In 2022 So Far

Meanwhile, the crypto industry has suffered several scales of crypto exploits already this year. According to crypto security firm Immunefi, investors have lost over $1.22 billion to hackers in the first quarter of 2022.

Axie Infinity’s Ronin Network which was exploited for about $625 million, became the largest hack in decentralized finance (DeFi) history. Also, Beanstalk Farms, a credit-focused stablecoin protocol built on Ethereum, lost over $182 million in another attack.

Additionally, Wormhole, one of the biggest cryptocurrency platforms that offer bridges to Solana and other blockchains, was hacked for about $320 million in February. Similarly, a week prior to Wormhole’s attack, DeFi protocol Qubit Finance also lost about $80 million worth of BNB.

However, experts have indicated that these hacks are bound to happen because of the fast growth of the DeFi space. Adrian Hetman pointed out that the attacks are more rampant because of the growth crypto industry.

Mitchell Amador, CEO and founder of Immunefi said more crypto hack and exploit would occur as the industry grows. He said:

“We should expect these types of [sophisticated] attacks to continue to increase. as DeFi gets bigger and bigger, these kinds of attacks become more and more lucrative.”