PayPal stablecoin launch sparks wave of fake PYUSD tokens

Lower than 16 hours have handed for the reason that launch of PayPal’s new stablecoin (PYUSD), and opportunists, degens and potential scammers are already making an attempt to money in on the hype with their very own copycat tokens.

In line with knowledge from decentralized change scanner DexScreener, practically 30 new token pairs sporting the ticker “PYUSD” have cropped up within the 16 hours for the reason that announcement.

https://twitter.com/PayPal/standing/1688552795278872576?ref_src=twsrcpercent5Etfw

The look-alike tokens have been minted on quite a lot of totally different chains together with Binance Sensible Chain, Ethereum and Coinbases’ latest layer 2 Base.

It’s vital to notice that the true PayPal USD token was created in November final 12 months, and might be verified on the following contract address.

PayPal explicitly stated that PayPal USD may solely be despatched between verified PayPal and different suitable wallets, making it extraordinarily unlikely that any of the tokens listed with the identical ticker on UniSwap or every other decentralized change are the true factor.

The biggest imposter PYUSD token, minted on Ethereum, has seen a staggering $2.6 million in buying and selling quantity since its inception simply minutes after PayPal introduced the launch of their stablecoin.

Regardless of surging greater than 30,000% within the first eight hours, the token has since plummeted greater than 66% from its all-time excessive.

One explicit token made a barely humorous tackle PayPal’s stablecoin, choosing the title “PepeYieldUnibotSatoshiDoge.” The imposter token has gained greater than 3,000% within the final 4 hours.

It’s value noting that most of the faux PYUSD tokens listed are possible what’s generally known as “honeypots” — which means that after an investor purchases the token, they’re unable to promote, and have successfully given away their crypto.

Except buyers are able to auditing good contracts themselves, they typically won’t discover out the token is a honeypot till they attempt to promote their holdings.

Degens have been recognized to race to mint new meme cash to capitalize on trending tales and developments.

On Aug. 3 nameless builders created an “LK-99” token, in a bid to money in on the superconductor craze.

Per week earlier than on July 27, degens crafted up a roster of greater than 50 UFO-themed meme cash as the US Congress held a listening to the place a whistleblower accused the U.S. authorities of overlaying up alien visitation to Earth.