The past week in decentralized finance (DeFi) land saw another memecoin frenzy, with celebrities launching their own memecoins — quite a trend shift from 2021–2022 when they launched their own nonfungible tokens (NFTs). Among all the meme hysteria, pop star Iggy Azalea devised a “burning” plan to evade frauds and rug pulls.

In other news, a trader who lost 1,807 liquid-staked Ether (ETH) worth $6.91 million appears to have received a large share of the stolen funds back from scammers. A new report from Immunefi revealed that crypto losses linked to hacks and frauds declined by 12% year-over-year in May.

The top 100 DeFi tokens had a mixed week as price momentum remained sideways where most tokens traded in green and the total value locked in DeFi contracts remained above $100 billion.

Crypto losses from fraud and hacks declined 12% in May — Immunefi

Crypto losses from fraud and hacks declined by 12% year-over-year, according to a May 30 report from blockchain security firm Immunefi. A total of $52 million was lost over the course of the month, down from over $59 million in the same month last year. In addition, the figure represents a 28% decline compared to the amount lost in April.

The report illustrates a continuing trend of declining losses from hacks and fraud in the Web3 industry. In March, Immunefi released a report stating that losses in Q1 2024 declined by 23% over the previous year. In April, CertiK reported that the month had seen its lowest losses ever.

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Iggy Azalea’s anti-scam plan: Burn her own coins

Pop star and newly minted crypto star Iggy Azalea announced she will burn her own coins whenever a celebrity coin is identified as a scam (a “rug”). Her strategy is to build trust and integrity in the crypto community and set herself apart from other controversial celebrities.

“I just think it’d be fire to want to be something positive,” Azalea said on an X Space.

Despite these efforts to bring legitimacy to her memecoin — dubbed Mother Iggy (MOTHER) — Bubblemaps recently claimed that insiders at launch bought a large portion of the token’s supply. The supply auditing tool platform alleged that insiders bought “20% of the supply at launch” before Azalea announced the launch of MOTHER. The holdings were then dumped for $2 million before the announcement.

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BNB Chain exploited for $80,000 of fake BTC tokens

Approximately $80,000 worth of a BEP-20 token labeled as “BTC” was lost in an exploit on the BNB Smart Chain involving multiple suspicious transactions. While $80,000 is considered a small amount compared to the average crypto exploit, it raised questions about the attacker’s intentions.

While the exploited token contract is still unknown, according to on-chain security firm Cyvers, the attacker could be a white hat or ethical hacker who uses his skills to find security vulnerabilities.

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Victim who lost $7 million in Ethereum restaking exploit gets funds back

An unfortunate victim who lost 1,807 liquid-staked ETH, worth $6.91 million, on May 26 appears to have received a large share of the stolen funds back from scammers.

“Yesterday, the old phishing group Inferno Drainer used the permit offline authorization signature to phish away nearly $7 million in ETH re-pledged assets from a user,” wrote Yu Xian, co-founder of blockchain analytics firm SlowMist. “Today, they got a refund, which is really rare.”

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DeFi market overview

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that DeFi’s top 100 tokens by market capitalization had a mixed week. Most tokens are traded in the green on the weekly charts. After weeks of bearish pressure, the total value locked in DeFi protocols crossed the $100-billion mark.

Thanks for reading our summary of this week’s most impactful DeFi developments. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights and education regarding this dynamically advancing space.