The data shows that there has been a significant increase in cryptocurrency funds stolen from phishing scams on Ethereum layer 2 Base. In March alone, approximately $3.35 million was stolen from scammers, marking an 18-fold increase compared to January. This represents a 334% increase from February and a massive 1,880% spike compared to January. Binance’s BNB Smart Chain also experienced a surge in phishing scams in March.
Overall, across all chains, approximately $71.5 million was lost to phishing scammers from 77,529 victims. This surpasses the tallies of $58.3 million in January and $46.8 million in February. Fake X accounts remain a primary tactic for phishing scammers, with over 1,500 incidents detected in March.
The rise in Base phishing scams coincides with the recent memecoin craze on the Coinbase-backed chain, which has contributed to Base’s total value locked surpassing $3.2 billion. This marks a 370% increase in 2024, according to L2Beat.
Despite the increase in phishing scams, crypto hack thefts actually decreased by 48% in March, totaling $187.2 million. This figure takes into account the $98.8 million that was recovered during the month. The majority of recoveries came from the Munchibles exploit, with cryptocurrency sleuth ZachXBT playing a role in recovering the stolen funds.
However, there were still notable losses from hacks in March. Curio’s MakerDAO-based smart contract lost $40 million, and Prisma Finance fell victim to an $11.6-million hack. The firm is currently in negotiations with the hacker to return the funds.
In response to these hacking incidents, a team of white hats called “SEAL 911” has been formed to fight crypto hacks in real time.