Ethena Labs’s Fake ENA token Exploited on Binance Draining $290K: Report

Hours after introducing Ethena (ENA) on Binance Launchpool, a fake ENA token has been exploited for 480 BNB worth $290,000.

According to a report by on-chain security firm PeckShield on Friday, the exploited token is the fake version of ENA.

“The token shares the same name as the legitimate ones,” the updated post on X (Twitter), read.

#PeckShieldAlert $ENA (Ethena Labs) on #BNBChain has been exploited, resulting in a loss of 480 $BNB (worth ~$290K)

*Note*: The token shares the same name as the legitimate ones

— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) March 29, 2024

Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by market value, added Ethena to its Launchpool, making the synthetic dollar protocol the 50th project to join the platform. The launch enables users to farm the token by staking BNB or FDUSD, the Friday announcement noted.

The fake Ethena token exploit, separate from the Ethena Labs initiative, emphasizes robust security measures and due-diligence in token transaction.

The news of the exploit spurred confusion among the crypto community on X. PeckShield confirmed users in a separate post that the token is fake and not linked with the legit Ethena.

“Clarification: The token mentioned below is not authentic and should not be linked to Ethena in any way.”

Clarification: The token mentioned below is not authentic and should not be linked to Ethena in any way. https://t.co/qxxKJfIe6n

— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) March 29, 2024

Ethena Token Airdrop – Highly Anticipated

The news of the fake Ethena exploit comes at a time when the community is highly anticipating the token airdrop which the company announced to take place on April 2. The airdrop marks the next phase in its expansion after the success of its USDe synthetic stablecoin.

The protocol has planned to airdrop 750 million ENA tokens, which is 5% of its total supply. Further, the airdrop will apply to eligible participants on April 2 and become available on centralized cryptocurrency exchanges (CEXs).

The company noted that the size of each user’s drop is determined by the amount of “shards” they accumulated through April 1. Shards are digital units measuring users’ engagement with the protocol.

Ethena’s USDe amassed a supply of over $1.38 billion, marking a key milestone, per DefiLlama data.