QUADRIGA INITIATIVE
CRYPTO WATCHDOG & FRAUD RECOVERY PLATFORM
A COMMUNITY-BASED, NOT-FOR-PROFIT
$15 000 000 USD
OCTOBER 2021
GLOBAL
DXDEX
DESCRIPTION OF EVENTS

"Unifying the Entire Financial Ecosystem. DxDEX is a decentralised exchange (DEX) primarily designed to be a unifying exchange of all cryptocurrencies and synthetic assets."
"DxDEX will be used to support trading for all kinds of cryptocurrency projects and traditional assets, providing significant liquidity to the decentralised finance (DEFI) universe by being all-inclusive."
"As a one-stop DEX, DxDEX will be positioned as a pivotal platform in the cryptocurrency space, allowing inter-exchange of all coins regardless of blockchain technology in a safe, transparent and permissionless environment."
"The campaign works by airdropping fictitious coins into victim wallets and enticing them to visit specially-crafted malicious websites." "When users attempt to interact with the airdropped tokens such as transferring them to a Decentralized Exchange (DEX), they are presented with an error message encouraging them to visit a malicious phishing website."
"The website presents users with a Decentralized Application (DApp) interface supposedly meant to connect their wallets and approve trading of the airdrop tokens. However, when users approve any transactions on the phishing website, in reality they are unknowingly approving a transfer of their personal tokens to the scammers."
"The scammers change airdrop token names and phishing websites frequently to evade blocklists; however, they still use the same tactics to steal tokens using fake airdrops and malicious Dapps."
"Coinbase Threat Intelligence, Special Investigations, and Global Intelligence teams have been tracking [this] ongoing phishing campaign on Ethereum, Polygon, Binance Smart Chain, and other EVM-compatible platforms which has unfortunately resulted in the theft of more than $15M in various crypto assets" during October 2021.
Millions of users received airdropped tokens directly into their wallet. When attempting to transfer them, they are instructed that they need to first claim them on the DxDex website. Copying the website text and linking to a CoinTelegraph article about ExoniumDex, the DxDex appears to offer a promising new technology and establishes credibility with users, who are prompted to connect their wallet to "Unlock" the tokens. In reality, the transaction they are approving is one which grants the scammers full access to withdraw the remaining tokens from their wallet. It is reported by Coinbase that over $15m was taken through these and similar scams, and the tactics and domain used are constantly evolving.
HOW COULD THIS HAVE BEEN PREVENTED?
Keep the majority of funds offline in a wallet which you don't use to interact with anything on a regular basis.
Always carefully check any transaction which is being approved. Use a new wallet which only contains the minimum coins required when interacting with an untrusted source, after careful research into whatever service you are planning to use.
Be especially careful when something appears to be provided for free. It is recommended to avoid interacting with airdropped tokens in general, especially when received from an unknown source.
https://blog.coinbase.com/security-psa-airdrop-phishing-campaign-38b880c0298a (May 31)
Phisher Watch Airdrop Scams (Jul 2)
Home | tDEX (Jul 2)
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Home | tExo (Jul 2)
TradFi meets DeFi: Decentralized platform vows to bring all financial services on-chain (Jul 2)
