Malicious actors began spoofing token transfers on Monad after the network went live

On-chain data on Wednesday revealed that bad actors began spoofing token transfers on Monad less than 48 hours after the network and its MON token debuted on Monday.

The data showed that bad actors began publicly selling tokens during the chain’s first period of liquidity and onboarding. The illegal activity on the Monad network also began within a day of the MON token’s airdrop on Tuesday. The CTO and co-founder James Hunsaker first spotted and reported the spoofing to its users.

Monad’s CTO claims the fake ERC-20 transfers were not from his wallet

Hunsaker noted early Wednesday that the movement of funds appeared as normal MON transfers on blockchain explorers. He also discovered that there were transactions from the wallets being impersonated at the time. 

Hunsaker warned earlier today that fake ERC-20 transfers were pretending to be from his wallet, citing a Monad user who alerted him of the transactions. The firm’s official confirmed that it was not a bug, but rather a spoofing attempt within their smart contract to try to trick people.

According to Hunsaker, Monad’s blockchain allows bad contracts to imitate legitimate transactions even when no wallet approval occurred. He cautioned Monad users to be cautious of malicious activity on Monad’s blockchain.

Hunsaker also revealed one wallet that had made a flurry of transactions on the network, and confirmed that he did not send the transactions. He noted that the spoofing attempts mirrored similar patterns seen in EVM-based chains.

Monad’s co-founder admitted that attackers usually deploy contracts and send out events that impersonate real token transactions, even when there were no token transfers and no wallet approvals.

Such a set of transfers is displayed as regular activity, which often tends to mislead users who are checking wallet history. On-chain data revealed illegitimate fake swap calls and other maliciously generated artificial signatures, which were used to simulate actual token transfers on the MON blockchain.

The launch of the Monad network and the debut of its MON token in the past two days initiated the spoofing attempt as users opened wallets and transferred tokens for the first time.

Monad completes the airdrop of MON tokens

The network completed its airdrop of MON tokens on Monday, issuing millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency to its recipients alongside the debut of its blockchain. On-chain data revealed that around 76,000 wallets claimed MON tokens over the past month. And received their tokens when the network and its token went live two days ago.

Monad revealed that 3.33 billion MON tokens had already been claimed by the network’s users, builders, and community members. On-chain data revealed that the network collectively valued MON around $105.2 million, while the airdrop size represented around 3% of MON’s total supply and 30% of the token’s circulating supply.

Monad revealed last week that approximately 85,800 people participated in the offering, which saw $269 million in commitments. The firm offered the tokens at $0.025 per token and sold for a total of $187 million on Monday.

CryptoRank data showed that Monad has raised $431 million in total funding, including $244 from several funding rounds, and $187 million through public sales.

Trevor Thompson, co-founder and CEO of social platform Ethos Network, argued that Monad’s airdrop may have been disappointing for speculators, but it was food for the project.

He also noted that the firm’s ICE was perfect in terms of price discovery, claiming that Monad maximized the amount it raised while giving the public tokens at a fair price.

At the time of publication, MON is trading at $0.04810, up nearly 50% in the last 24 hours. The token has also surged more than 66% since its debut on Monday.

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