In a surprising announcement on Telegram, Pink Drainer, a well-known tool for stealing crypto assets, revealed its retirement after successfully aiding in the theft of over $85 million. The developer, known as ‘Pink,’ declined to comment further before deleting the entire Telegram chat record. The shutdown was confirmed by CryptoSleuth ZachXBT, who shared a screenshot of the final announcement. The Pink Drainer Telegram channel has now rebranded as “Bonadifier,” featuring an image of Bonad, a mentally disabled drainer, with the message, “never forget what he took from you.”
PeckShieldAlert also reported on the shutdown, revealing that Pink Drainer addresses had staked around 18.1 million $DAI into Spark, which accounts for approximately 1.35% of the total $sDAI tokens.
Since July 2023, over $85 million has been stolen from more than 21,100 victims, as reported by Dune Analytics.
The Pink Drainer announcement follows a trend among high-profile drainers in the crypto space. Inferno Drainer shut down in November 2023 after assisting in the theft of $70 million, while Monkey Drainer closed in March 2023 after helping steal $13 million.
Although the shutdown of drainer services may provide temporary relief to crypto users, the existence of other drainers like Angel Drainer indicates that the threat is far from over. In February, Angel Drainer stole over $400,000 from 128 crypto wallets by targeting users with a malicious Safe Vault contact.
For more information on phishing attacks and how to prevent online hacks, refer to Cointelegraph’s crypto and artificial intelligence (AI) guide.
In other news, Bybit’s Notcoin listing faced controversy, and a Chinese firm saw a 1100% increase in profits after a crypto purchase, as reported by Asia Express magazine.