PayPal Stablecoin Debut Initiates Surge in Fake PYUSD Tokens
In response to PayPal's recent announcement, nearly thirty fake PYUSD tokens appeared from opportunists, degens, and potential con artists.
Since the release of PayPal's new stablecoin (PYUSD), opportunists, degens, and potential fraudsters are already attempting to capitalize on the craze with their imitation tokens.
According to information from the decentralized exchange scanner DEX Screener, nearly 30 new token pairs with the identifier “PYUSD” have emerged in the hours following the announcement.
Today, we’re unveiling a new stablecoin, PayPal USD (PYUSD). It’s designed for payments and is backed by highly liquid and secure assets. Starting today and rolling out in the next few weeks, you’ll be able to buy, sell, hold and transfer PYUSD. Learn more https://t.co/53RRBhmNHx pic.twitter.com/53ur2KmjU7
— PayPal (@PayPal) August 7, 2023
Similar tokens have been issued on multiple chains, including BNB Smart Chain, Ethereum, and the newest layer of Coinbase, Base. Notably, the actual PayPal USD token was issued in November 2022 and can be verified at the following contract address.
PayPal explicitly stated that PayPal USD could only be sent between verified PayPal and other compatible wallets, making it highly unlikely that any of the tokens listed on UniSwap or any other decentralized exchange with the same ticker are the real deal.
Since its inception mere minutes after PayPal proclaimed the launch of its stablecoin, the largest Ethereum-based forgery PYUSD token has seen a staggering $2.6 million in trading volume.
Despite a surge of more than 30,000% within the first eight hours, the token's price has since dropped by more than 66% from its all-time high One token had a humorous take on PayPal's stablecoin, selecting “PepeYieldUnibotSatoshiDoge.” In less than four hours, the value of the counterfeit token increased by over 3,000%.
Many of the listed fraudulent PYUSD tokens are likely “honeypots,” meaning that once an investor purchases the token, they cannot sell it and have effectively lost their cryptocurrency
Only when they can audit intelligent contracts investors frequently discover that a token is a honeypot once they attempt to sell their holdings. Degens have been observed racing to mint new memecoins to capitalize on prevalent news and events. To capitalize on the superconductor mania, anonymous developers created the “LK-99” token on August 3.
A week earlier, on July 27, degens compiled a list of over 50 UFO-themed memecoins as the United States Congress held a hearing where a whistleblower accused the U.S. government of concealing extraterrestrial visitation on Earth.
