According to a report from crypto intelligence platform Merkle Science, over $500 million was lost to memecoin rug pulls and scams in 2024. The scams primarily utilized social engineering techniques, targeting celebrities and well-known figures in the tech industry. In one case, scammers compromised French footballer Kylian Mbappe's X account and promoted a memecoin that reached a $460 million market cap before being rug pulled. Music artist Wiz Khalifa's 35.7 million followers on X were also targeted, with a fake WIZ token rising to a $3.4 million market cap before collapsing to zero. Merkle Science's report indicates that meme coin rug pulls accounted for the majority of losses, with platforms like X being the main battleground. The report also reveals that the attacks occurred predominantly on X and YouTube, with rug pulls and phishing attacks being the most common methods.



Other News from Today