Token Sewage Spill on Base

How can scammers benefit from cheap fees on L2 networks?

Today, we will look at another peculiar case on Base: a flood of scam tokens deployed by the same deployer, who spits a new one out every few minutes. One such example is the KOBE Token.

To avoid falling for such traps, check the Security tab in our detailed token view.

Example for 0x08ce86385ca47ccfbbef1bb9e3993016015e17ea.

How the scam works

Funding Round

First, all associated wallets are funded. They are funded by (0x317ECA62872f16F2f8Cc05ba21107851A331042D), who we will call SEWAGE_PLANT.

The funding round consists of:

Setup

With wallets funded, the token and pool creation is done. The main CEO here is GRIMDRAIN:

Token’s Life

Now come the TRASHMEN. They make a trade or two to pump some life into this token, hoping to entice victims to buy in. Transactions Link

Drainage

A simple rug-pull is executed after a victim buys in and money is taken out.

  • TxLink; Jul-16-2024 08:56:47 PM +UTC: Victim buys the token

  • TxLink; Jul-16-2024 08:57:17 PM +UTC: GRIMDRAIN executes a rug-pull

Cleanup

After the rug-pull is done, the token is dead and abandoned.

After some days (in KOBE’s case it was around 20 days later) another smart contract (0x932ef0cFF81cBe6A71FC0A93Dd04aDCA4f18a7fB) is called (TxLink) that buys a very small amount of this token. Since there is almost no liquidity, the price is shot up.

This contract buys many scam tokens in the same transactions, pumping their prices so they look better retrospectively.

After the scam is finished, all the TRASHMEN and GRIMDRAIN send the remaining funds back to SEWAGE_PLANT, and the scam is immediately repeated.

Tx Cost comparison: Base v. Ethereum

Let's finish things up by comparing the transaction fees a single scam costs him and the fees such a scam would cost on Ethereum.

Base costs

Funding round - Total: $0.007799:

  • 11 transfers. Where one transfer costs:

    • 0.000000205861007807 ETH, or

    • $0.000709, estimated cost on the day of tx

Setup - Total: $0.112903 :

  • Token creation and approval:

    • 0.000009434 ETH, or

    • $0.031487, estimated cost on the day of tx

  • Pool creation and approval:

    • 0.000023613 ETH, or

    • $0.081416, estimated cost on the day of tx

Token’s life - Total: $0.03559 :

  • 10 Trashmen making transactions. Let’s assume each of them only makes one transaction.

    • 0.0000010326051324 ETH, or

    • $0.003559, estimated cost on the day of tx

Drainage - Total: $0.009555:

  • Removing liq. and executing the rug-pull

    • 0.00000277265538106 ETH, or

    • $0.009555, estimated cost on the day of tx

Cleanup - Total: $0.007799 :

  • 11 transfers back to sewage plant, where 1 transfer costs:

    • 0.000000205861007807 ETH, or

    • $0.000709, estimated cost on the day of tx

TOTAL COST: $0.17 (on Base)

Ethereum costs

Funding round - Total: $12.54 :

  • 11 transfers. Where one transfer costs:

    • 0.0003353580413568 ETH, or

    • $1.14, estimated cost on the day of tx

Setup - Total: $106.77 :

  • Token and Pool creation:

    • 0.03151631082103768 ETH, or

    • $106.77, estimated cost on the day of tx

Token’s life - Total: $35.50 :

  • 10 Trashmen making transactions. Let’s assume each of them only makes one transaction.

    • 0.00103193829507267 ETH, or

    • $3.55, estimated cost on the day of tx

Drainage - Total: $14.55 :

  • Removing liq. and executing the rug-pull

    • 0.004295774999644624 ETH, or

    • $14.55, estimated cost on the day of tx

Cleanup - Total: $12.54 :

  • 11 transfers back to a sewage plant, where one transfer costs:

    • 0.0003353580413568 ETH, or

    • $1.14, estimated cost on the day of tx

TOTAL COST: $181.9 (on Ethereum)

Sumup

With costs for running a scam being 1000x cheaper on Base than on Ethereum, it is no surprise that automated scammers have moved to L2s, flooding them with shitcoins.

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