The number of rug pull incidents in the encryption field has decreased, but the harm per incident has increased.

The number of cryptocurrency rug pull cases in 2025 has decreased by 66% compared to the same period last year, but the scale of each incident continues to expand.

According to the data of the blockchain analysis platform, the frequency of rug pull events is decreasing year by year. At the beginning of 2024, 21 separate incidents were recorded, while only 7 have occurred so far in 2025.

However, deeper data analysis indicates that since the beginning of 2025, the Web3 ecosystem has suffered nearly $6 billion in losses due to fraud. Notably, the report attributes 92% of these losses to the price collapse of Mantra’s OM token, although the project’s founder strongly denies that this was a planned scam.

In contrast, the total losses due to rug pulls during the same period in 2024 were approximately $90 million.

Data analysts state: “This trend indicates that while the number of rug pull incidents is decreasing, their destructiveness is stronger than ever once they occur.”

“These scams are becoming increasingly complex, often orchestrated by teams with sophisticated brand images and carefully crafted narratives.”

Memecoin Becomes a Major Target of Rug Pull Events

Professionals point out that the nature of rug pulls is evolving. In the first quarter of 2024, most scams are originating from DeFi protocols, NFT projects, and meme coins. By the same period in 2025, the vast majority of rug pull incidents are concentrated in the meme coin sector.

The native Solana token of the Libertad project, Libra (LIBRA), is one of the recent rug pull cases that has attracted significant attention. On February 14 of this year, following the relevant information posted by Argentine President Javier Milei on social media, the market value of the token rapidly surged to 4.56 billion USD.

However, after Mile deleted the post, the token price plummeted by over 94%, sparking allegations of artificial price manipulation.

Analysts say: “Fraud and exit scams remain a persistent threat, especially in ecosystems where projects can quickly gain attention through hype but may abscond with user funds in a short period of time.”

“Despite the increasing awareness among users and the growing tools for detecting suspicious activities, rug pulls remain a recurring issue, especially in the DeFi and newly launched token ecosystems.”

How to Identify Potential Rug Pull Risks

Professionals point out that the danger signals of rug pulls include a sudden increase in the number of active wallets without apparent reason, or an unusually high trading volume but relatively low user activity.

At the same time, unverified smart contracts, limited GitHub development activity, anonymous development teams, or projects that suddenly go viral may also be warning signs of potential scams.

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“As the industry matures, the methods used by criminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated. But fortunately, the preventive tools available to users are also continuously being strengthened,” the analyst added.

“Although rug pull behavior may never be completely eradicated, its harm can be significantly reduced when users possess the correct information and risk awareness.”