BNB Smart Chain scam losses dropped 75% in Q3: Report

Security firm HashDit says the lower amount lost to scams on BSC could be due to an uptrend in security products addressing the threat.

Scams facilitated on BNB Smart Chain (BSC) decreased from $55.4 million in the second quarter of 2023 to $13.6 million in the third quarter, according to an AvengerDAO report contributed to by security firm HashDit. This represents a 75% drop in the amount lost to scams.

According to the security firm’s analysis, the drop can be attributed to various factors, including an increase in overall awareness among community members, an uptrend in security products flagging malicious websites and activities, and community members identifying scams early and giving warnings before the scammers can succeed.

Despite the drop, rug pulls represented 67% of total losses on the blockchain in the third quarter. According to HashDit, this remains BSC’s most common attack vector. With rug pulls, maliciously acting projects entice investors with marketing efforts but don’t deliver their promised products, and the founders run away with investor funds. 

Reserves and price manipulation were also prevalent on BSC in Q3 2023. According to the report, this is because hackers are exploiting “poorly designed smart contracts.”

Related: Exploits, hacks and scams stole almost $1B in 2023: Report

On Oct. 20, various security experts highlighted that malicious actors may prefer BSC because it’s cheaper and is perceived as having lower security than the Ethereum blockchain. According to CertiK security researcher Joe Green, fees on BSC are much lower than Ethereum, but the network’s stability and speed are the same. The researcher believes that because of this, hackers face “no financial pressure” when using BSC.

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