Meme coin scammers are getting bolder – and richer. As 2025’s crypto landscape reveals an unsettling trend, rug pulls have transformed from frequent nuisances into devastating financial black holes. While the number of incidents dropped 66% from 2024, the damage skyrocketed from a mere $90 million to a jaw-dropping $6 billion. Transaction volumes hit unprecedented peaks before major scams unfolded.
The memecoin market, once riding high at $137 billion in 2024, now sits at a humbling $49 billion. Turns out, those cute dog tokens weren’t so friendly after all. With unlimited token supplies becoming increasingly common, these coins were primed for manipulation. A staggering 98.6% of tokens launched on Pump.fun were either rug pulls or pump and dump schemes. Who would’ve thought? Like developer Aurelien Michel who admitted in a Discord channel that his Fashion Ape NFT project was designed solely to steal investor funds.
Those adorable meme tokens turned out to be wolves in doge clothing, taking billions down with their wagging tails.
The Mantra Network rug pull stands as 2025’s crown jewel of crypto catastrophes, accounting for 92% of the year’s losses. At $5.5 billion, it makes earlier scams look like amateur hour. Meanwhile, classics like OneCoin, Thodex, and the infamous Squid Game token maintain their spots in the rug pull hall of shame.
Modern scammers aren’t just grabbing the money and running anymore – they’re putting on quite a show first. They create elaborate project facades, manipulate on-chain activity, and orchestrate complex multi-stage operations. Gone are the days of simple token abandonment. These folks are getting creative.
The numbers tell a brutal story: the average rug pull loss jumped from $4.3 million in 2024 to $857 million in 2025. Scammers are clearly thinking bigger – why steal millions when you can steal billions? They’re targeting various blockchain networks, with Polygon hosting the massive Mantra Network disaster.
Red flags have evolved too. Unusual spikes in wallet activity, suspicious transaction surges, and volume spikes reaching historical highs now precede these elaborate exit scams. It’s like watching a train wreck in slow motion – except the train is made of digital money, and the conductor is laughing all the way to their non-custodial wallet.
