Counterfeit PYUSD Tokens Surge After PayPal’s Stablecoin Launch
Following PayPal’s most recent statement, around 30 bogus PYUSD tokens appeared.
In less than 16 hours following the debut of PayPal’s new stablecoin (PYUSD), opportunists, degens, and possible scammers have already attempted to capitalize on the hoopla with their imitation tokens.
According to DexScreener, a decentralized exchange scanner, approximately 30 new token pairs with the ticker “PYUSD” have appeared in the 16 hours since the announcement.
The coins have been issued on chains, including Binance Smart Chain, Ethereum, and Coinbases’ newest layer 2 Base.
It’s worth noting that the actual PayPal USD token was created in November of last year and can be validated at the contact address listed below.
PayPal clearly said that PayPal USD may only be transferred between verified PayPal accounts and other suitable wallets, making it exceedingly improbable that any of the tokens listed with the same ticker on UniSwap or any different decentralized market are genuine.
Since its genesis just minutes after PayPal announced the introduction of their stablecoin, the largest impostor PYUSD token, created on Ethereum, has witnessed an astounding $2.6 million in trade activity.
Price action for one phony PYUSD token since inception. Source: DexScreener
Despite a more than 30,000% increase in the first eight hours, the token has dropped more than 66% from its all-time high.
One token took a lighthearted approach to PayPal’s stablecoin, naming itself “PepeYieldUnibotSatoshiDoge.” The imposter token increased by over 3,000% in the previous four hours.
Price action since the source for PepeYieldUnibotSatoshiDoge. Source: DexScreener
It’s worth mentioning that many of the phony PYUSD tokens listed are most likely “honeypots,” which means that once an investor buys the token, they can’t sell it and have effectively given away their crypto.
Only if investors can audit smart contracts may they discover the token is a honeypot once they attempt to sell their holdings.
Degens have been known to rush to create new meme coins to capitalize on popular events and developments.
On August 3, unidentified developers launched the “LK-99” token to profit from the superconductor frenzy.
On July 27, degens created over 50 UFO-themed meme coins as the United States Congress held a session where a whistleblower accused the US government of hiding alien visitation to Earth.
