Notorious Pink Drainer Retires After $85M Theft

After hitting the $85 million milestone in stolen crypto assets, the notorious Pink Drainer retires in a surprise Telegram announcement.

Pink Drainer, an infamous crypto-wallet draining kit, proclaimed its retirement in an unexpected Telegram message, having accomplished its objective of assisting in the theft of more than $85 million worth of crypto assets.

“After this message’s publication, we will begin winding down all of our infrastructure. All stored information will be wiped and securely destroyed.

“I do not wish to comment,” ‘Pink,’ the encrypted messaging service channel developer, told Cointelegraph. Bye.” 

PeckShieldAlert, which also provided information regarding the suspension, disclosed to the community that Pink Drainer addresses had wagered a maximum of 18.1 million $DAI into Spark, which accounted for approximately 1.35% of the overall $sDAI tokens.

Then, Pink expunged the complete Telegram conversation log.

ZachXBT, a crypto sleuth, supplied a screenshot of the final announcement made by the Pink Drainer Telegram channel, which formally terminated the drinkware service after the theft of more than $75 million. 

Since July 2023, more than $85 million has been plundered from over 21,100 victims, per Dune Analytics.

Since then, the Pink Drainer Telegram channel has been renamed “Bonadifier.” The channel is currently adorned with an image of the mentally disabled drainer Bonad and the inscription “Never forget what he took from you.”

The cybercriminal arsenal developed by Pink Drainer assisted in the theft of $53 million from more than 9000 “participants” in 2023. The Pink Drainer security researcher defended the service by stating, “I code, not phishing.

Cointelegraph’s guide to artificial intelligence (AI) and crypto will educate you on phishing attacks and how to prevent online breaches.

The Pink Drainer announcement continues a trend of prominent drainers entering the crypto-draining space. After assisting in the theft of $70 million, Inferno Drainer ceased operations in November 2023. Before that, Monkey Drainer ceased operations in March 2023, having contributed to the theft of $13 million.  

Although the temporary respite provided to crypto users by the closure of drainer services is noteworthy, the continued presence of drainers such as Angel Drainer indicates that the menace remains significant. Angel Drainer compromised more than 128 cryptocurrency purses in February by using a malicious Safe Vault contact to target users.