Telegram-linked cryptocurrency Toncoin's TON/USD impressive run on the price charts this year has thrilled market participants, but the rising popularity has inadvertently drawn the attention of bad actors as well.
What Happened: According to Web3 anti-scam platform Scam Sniffer, an address with a criminal history swindled as many as 22,000 TON tokens from unsuspecting users over the past few days. At the current market price, the stolen amount was worth $140,000.
Digging deep into the modus operandi, the on-chain sleuth showed how users are duped into clicking a popup that promises to transfer USDT USDT/USD to their wallets. However, these were nothing but phishing links that ended up emptying their wallets of TON tokens.
Similar findings were reported by cybersecurity firm Kaspersky, which unearthed a sophisticated phishing operation active since November 2023 that targeted TON holders.
Why It Matters: Toncoin has been one of the crypto market's success stories in 2024, soaring 185% on a year-to-date basis, according to data from Benzinga Pro.
According to a report by Santiment last week, Toncoin witnessed the fastest network growth among leading cryptocurrencies over the last six months.
The growth was fueled by social messaging giant Telegram's public support for the project, and its growing utility within the Telegram ecosystem.
However, as the network grows in strength, and valuation increases, it would attract the predatory gazes of scammers and phishers, who don't need any second invitation to jump on money-making opportunities.
Scam Sniffer reported losses of nearly $300 million due to crypto phishing scams in 2023, and $173 million already as of March.
Price Action: At the time of writing, TON was exchanging hands at $6.58, marking double-digit gains of 11% in the last 24 hours.
Image via Shutterstock
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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