If a digital asset isn’t secure, it’s not an asset

This is a specific type of vulnerability in which an attacker exploits the reliance of smart contracts on external data sources, called oracles, to tamper with contract execution or access information without authorization. For example: By leveraging unrealized profits and the inflated value of their holdings as collateral, an attacker can use digital assets to successfully secure a substantial loan, often in hundreds of millions of dollars.

Named after the practice of fattening a pig before slaughter, pig butchering is a scheme where con artists gain the trust of their targets, coax them into making fraudulent investments, then vanish with their funds. The process typically starts with the scammer asking for small investments in order to gain the target’s confidence. Then they use false claims and doctored performance data to give the impression of considerable asset growth, resulting in the victim incurring substantial losses, thus “butchering” their investments.

These are fraudulent investment tactics that rely on the constant inflow of new investors or investments to provide returns for previous participants. They begin with a bad actor who tempts investors with the promise of sizable returns. Then, the scammer uses the funds provided by new investors to pay off returns owed by earlier participants, thus establishing a vicious cycle. When it becomes impossible for the victims to recruit sufficient new participants or investments to maintain payouts, the scheme collapses, leading to significant financial losses for those involved.