Report: Rug Pull Incidents in the Crypto Space Have Decreased, but Their Impact Has Grown

On April 18th, according to a report by Cointelegraph. Based on the latest report from the blockchain analytics platform DappRadar, there were 21 "Rug Pull" incidents in the early part of 2024. In contrast, there were only 7 incidents from 2025 to the present. This indicates a declining frequency year by year. However, since the early 2025, the Web3 ecosystem has lost nearly $6 billion due to such incidents. 92% of this loss was attributed to the collapse of Mantra's OM token (the token's founder denies this was a "Rug Pull"). In contrast, the total loss from "Rug Pull" incidents in the same period of 2024 was $90 million. DappRadar analyst Sara Gherghelas pointed out that although the frequency of such incidents has decreased, their destructiveness has increased. Scams are becoming more sophisticated and are often orchestrated by professional teams. The nature of these incidents is also evolving. Many incidents in the first quarter of 2024 originated from DeFi protocols, NFT projects, and Meme coins. While in the same period of 2025, they mostly occurred in the Meme coin space. Gherghelas also warned that a sudden surge in the number of active wallets, a high transaction volume but low user activity, unverified smart contracts, limited GitHub activity, anonymous developer teams, or projects with a sudden spike in DApp popularity could all be warning signs of a "Rug Pull."