The recently launched Candy (CANDY) token of liquidity protocol Lena Network experienced a significant drop of over 87% following a rug pull that resulted in the loss of 753 Ether, equivalent to $2.9 million at the time of publication.
According to Dexscreener data, the Candy token plummeted to $0.38 at 12:48 am UTC from its daily high of $3.08, which was recorded at 5:45 am.
On-chain data revealed that the deployer address of Lena Network transferred 753.11 Ether to an address associated with OKX exchange on March 6 at 2:30 am, as reported by Etherscan. Shortly after this incident, Lena Network made an official announcement renouncing ownership of the token contract. As of now, the protocol has not responded to the rug pull.
Lena Network had raised more than 850 Ether ($3.2 million) for its Candy initial farm offering, which concluded on March 3. The Candy token was launched on March 6 but experienced a sharp decline soon after.
Rug pulls and hacks remain a concerning issue in the cryptocurrency space. According to a research report by blockchain security firm Immunefi, more than $200 million worth of cryptocurrency has been lost to such incidents in the year-to-date of 2024 across 32 separate occurrences. This represents a 15.4% increase compared to the total losses of $173 million in January and February 2023.
In February alone, there were 12 specific hack and fraud incidents resulting in the theft of over $67 million worth of crypto, which is almost a 50% decrease from the $133 million stolen in January.
In 2023, a total of $1.8 billion was lost to crypto hacks and scams, with the North Korean Lazarus Group accounting for 17% of the losses, according to a report by Immunefi.
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