According to the latest data from Web3 Antivirus, rug pulls account for 54% of all crypto scams detected to date. Behind their facade of promising projects, these scams are based on hidden contractual mechanisms, activated once the investors are trapped. AI is now amplifying the phenomenon: distribution channels are multiplying, targeting is becoming clearer.
In brief
- Rug pulls account for 54% of crypto scams according to Web3 Antivirus, ahead of honeypots (22%) and fake tokens (12%).
- Of more than 100 million contracts analyzed by the platform, nearly 4 million have been flagged as fraudulent, including 3.1 million in the last 30 days.
- Email remains the main vector for spreading scams, used in 53% of cases, followed by SMS (10%) and social networks (9%).
Rug pulls, the first threat to the crypto market
Rug pulls clearly dominate the crypto scam landscape. In an analysis published on June 9 on X, Web3 Antivirus places them far ahead of honeypots (22%), fake tokens (12%) and fraudulent airdrops (nearly 12%).
The platform has identified more than 425,000 rug pulls, 172,000 honeypots and more than 94,000 fraudulent distributions since the launch of its Scam Pulse tool.
What makes these scams fearsome is their ability to mimic normal bull market activity. Rising prices, growing trading volumes, noisy community: it all seems legitimate. Then comes the shift.
“ A token may seem promising, its price climbing and the community becoming more and more vocal, but a simple action by a holder can change everything in a few seconds », writes Web3 Antivirus.
The same contract control mechanisms, invisible during the upswing, can suddenly prevent users from selling, causing a liquidity shortage and price collapse.
Fake tokens work according to the same scheme. Creators artificially inflate value via fake transactionsattract investors, then block any resale via the underlying contract. Result: funds are drained, scammers disappear.
AI makes scams harder to detect
Beyond blockchain, it is also the way in which these scams reach investors that is evolving. Web3 Antivirus notes that AI now makes it possible to produce phishing emails, fake support conversations, and fraudulent social media posts convincing enough to pass a quick visual check.
Email accounts for 53% of the distribution vectors identified. One incident clearly illustrates the scale of the phenomenon: in May 2025, a fake site imitating Uniswap siphoned off at least $400,000 before being reported.
David Schwartz, CTO Emeritus of Ripple, also alerted XRP holders about a fake distribution campaign targeting XRPL users that same month.
Furthermore, the weekly ranking of Web3 Antivirus reveals an increase in contract identity theft: Ethereum has 291 detections of fake tokens, Tether 270, USDC 225.
These figures are increasing on almost all assets tracked compared to the previous week, a warning signal to watch out for, particularly for investors attentive to the security of their crypto wallets.
In short, Web3 Antivirus data paints a worrying picture. More than half of crypto scams exploit apparently legitimate smart contracts, the production of fraudulent content is becoming industrialized thanks to AI, and the distribution vectors are diversifying.
Faced with this development, investors benefit from systematically checking contractual permissions before any token purchase, relying in particular on on-chain analysis tools available on the market. Vigilance remains the only effective defense.
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