Base Lending Protocol Magnate Finance Rug Pulls with $6.5M in Losses

Summary

• Magnate Finance, a lending protocol on Base, has pulled off an exit scam, resulting in a loss of $6.5 million.
• The rug pull was executed by directly manipulating the price oracle, causing the Total Value Locked (TVL) to plummet from $6.4 million to about $107,000.
• Onchain detective @zachxbt was the first to alert the cryptocurrency community about the rug pull, highlighting a direct link between the deployer's address of Magnate Finance and the Solfire's $4.8 million exit scam.

Just a few weeks after the Bald deployer siphoned off $23 million in liquidity from the project, things have gone from bad to worse on the Coinbase’s new Layer 2 network. Magnate Finance, a lending protocol has become  the latest to perform an exit scam, resulting in a staggering loss of approximately $6.5 million. According to security platform PeckShield, the rug pull was executed by directly manipulating the price oracle. 

The incident has caused the Total Value Locked (TVL) of Magnate Finance to plummet from $6.4 million to about $107,000 as of publication time. The perpetrator behind this malicious act reportedly altered the source of the price oracle and removed all assets from the protocol.

Onchain detective @zachxbt was the first to alert the cryptocurrency community on X.

He also highlighted a direct link between the deployer's address of Magnate Finance and the Solfire's $4.8 million exit scam, intensifying suspicions.

Moments later, the Magnate Finance website was taken offline, with both the project's Twitter and Telegram groups deleted. Moreover, disturbing ties were uncovered by ZachXBT, connecting the project to the Kokomo Finance exit scam, further eroding the project's credibility.

Amid the chaos, the project issued a cryptic response to zachxbt's initial post, stating, "We stick to the plan? 50-50?" and updated their X bio with “Contract breached by Zach”. This enigmatic remark has left the cryptocurrency community speculating about the true intentions behind the rug pull and the subsequent actions taken by the project.