TL;DR
- Fewer but Deadlier: Despite a 66% drop in the number of rug pulls in 2025, losses have skyrocketed to nearly $6 billion from about $90 million last year.
- Major Impact from Single Event: The collapse of Mantra’s OM token alone accounts for 92% of the current losses, highlighting how one sophisticated scam can inflict massive damage.
- Evolving Scam Tactics: Fraudsters are shifting from clumsy DeFi schemes to polished, narrative-driven memecoin scams, making red flags harder to spot and security measures ever more critical.
The crypto world is witnessing a paradox: while the number of rug pulls has dropped dramatically in 2025, the financial damage they inflict has grown to staggering proportions. Recent data from DappRadar highlights that despite a 66% decrease in the frequency of these scams compared to last year, the losses have soared, painting a picture of more sophisticated and costly frauds.
Rising Impact Despite Lower Frequency
In early 2025, only seven incidents of rug pulls were reported compared to 21 during the same period in 2024. However, losses have ballooned to nearly $6 billion so far this year, a drastic jump from the approximate $90 million recorded with similar timing last year.
This huge disparity indicates that while fewer scams are being executed, the rogue operations behind them are far more devastating when they occur. A significant contributor to this surge is the dramatic collapse of Mantra’s OM token, which alone is linked to 92% of the current losses, even as its team denies any wrongdoing.
This case underscores that in today’s market, a single well-orchestrated exit scam can wipe out billions, shaking investor confidence beyond traditional expectations.
Evolving Tactics and Future Outlook
The landscape of crypto scams is evolving rapidly. Bad actors are no longer relying on clumsy, easily spotted schemes; rather, they’re employing polished branding and carefully constructed narratives to lure in unsuspecting investors.
In past years, rug pulls mainly occurred in DeFi protocols and NFT projects, but in 2025, there has been a noticeable shift towards memecoins. For instance, the Libertad project’s native Solana token, Libra, experienced a meteoric rise to a $4.56 billion market capitalization following a high-profile social media endorsement, only to collapse by over 94% shortly after.
Red flags such as a sudden surge in wallet activity, unverified smart contracts, and sparse GitHub updates are becoming the new indicators of potential scams. As the tactics of fraudsters grow ever more sophisticated, the crypto community is urged to keep its guard up.
Robust security measures and heightened investor diligence are essential to navigate this increasingly perilous terrain, ensuring that even as the number of rug pulls declines, their crippling financial impact does not continue to rise.
