In a shocking turn of events, SwirlLend, a lending protocol operated on Ethereum Layer 2 networks Base and Linea, allegedly pulled off an exit scam.
The damage? A staggering $460,000 in user deposits.
The breakdown reveals that $290,000 was siphoned off from Base and $170,000 from Linea. The funds were then swiftly transferred to Ethereum. PeckShield, a renowned security firm, delved into on-chain analysis and discovered the unsettling movements of funds from SwirlLend. As the news broke, the user deposits on SwirlLend took a nosedive, plummeting from an initial $780,000 to a mere $49, as per data from DeFiLlama.
But that’s not all.
SwirlLend’s digital footprints have been wiped clean off the internet in a move that screams guilt. Their social media handles on platforms like Twitter and Telegram have vanished, and attempts to access their official website hit a dead end.
PeckShield didn’t mince words and labeled the incident a “rug pull.” For those unfamiliar with the term, a ‘rug pull’ is a notorious practice in the crypto world. It’s when the developers behind a crypto project abruptly run off with the funds deposited by users.
This isn’t the Base network’s first hit with such a scandal. A similar incident unfolded with the Bald meme coin. Once valued at an impressive $85 million, Bald’s value crashed to almost zero when an unidentified developer pulled the plug and withdrew liquidity from the main pool.
