Ordinals gave Bitcoin a way for creators to âinscribeâ NFT-like digital media and later meme tokens on the Bitcoin blockchainâbut along with substantial growth has come the same kinds of scams and exploits that have thrived on other platforms. Last week, the Ordinals space saw what is being described by some users as its largest such attack to date.
On Friday, a new alleged meme token project called ORNG launched, offering users the ability to mint a BRC-20 fungible token via the Ordinals protocol. It rolled out on what appeared to some users to be an actual Ordinals launchpad site called Luminex.
But it wasnât Luminexâand the mint apparently also wasnât legit. It was launched via a knockoff website called âLuminuxâ (note the sly vowel change), and soon Twitter users complained of their Bitcoin wallets being drained after they believed that they had signed a transaction to mint the new meme token.
Itâs a familiar story in the world of Ethereum NFTs and token drops, and such âwallet drainerâ scams come in various forms. Sometimes itâs through a phishing-style attack in which a doctored website is created that looks like an actual official website or marketplace. Other times, such scams are spread through a hacked Twitter account of a notable creator or brand.
Itâs not clear exactly how much was stolen in the attack, but the wallet tied to the scam took in about 2.37 Bitcoinâor about $63,000 worthâprimarily on Friday, with fewer transactions registered over the weekend.
Since the Friday launch, the Twitter account tied to the scam has rebranded to try and serve up another potential scam, with the same fake âLuminuxâ landing page adjusted to promote a new token mint. Itâs still unclear who was behind the scam mints.
Luminex and Bitcoin wallet creator Xverse were among the companies warning users of the scam and tweeting details on how to avoid falling for similar attempts. A Luminex spokesperson told Decrypt that it warned its community âwithin minutesâ of the scam launch.
Like similar scams on Ethereum that have drained untold millions of dollarsâ worth of crypto from unsuspecting users, itâs often a matter of people acting too quickly to take advantage of what they believe will be an opportunity to make some money.
That âfear of missing out,â or FOMO, often drives crypto and NFT traders to overlook potential red flags. In this case, the rising buzz around Ordinals projects and BRC-20 tokensâincluding the hyped recent launch of the OXBT tokenâmay have tripped up overeager minters.
âScams often ride on popular project waves, as seen here,â the Luminex spokesperson told Decrypt. âWe always encourage our community to double-check URLs and wait for official announcements before joining new projects.â
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