Notorious Pink Drainer retires after hitting $85M theft milestone

Pink Drainer, infamous for aiding in crypto thefts, decided to shut down operations after amassing over $85 million in stolen assets.

In a surprise Telegram announcement, Pink Drainer, a notorious crypto-wallet draining kit, declared that it would be retiring, having after reaching its goal of helping steal over $85 million in 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.

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

Pink then deleted the entire Telegram chat record.

CryptoSleuth ZachXBT provided a screenshot of the Pink Drainer Telegram channel’s final announcement, shutting down the drainware service after over $75 million was stolen. 

PeckShieldAlert also reported on the shutdown, informing the community that Pink Drainer addresses had staked a total of up to 18.1 million $DAI into Spark — constituting around 1.35% of the total $sDAI tokens.

According to Dune Analytics, over $85 million has been stolen from over 21,100 victims since July, 2023.

Related: Memecoin launcher pump.fun claims ex-employee behind $1.9M exploit

The Pink Drainer Telegram channel has since rebranded to “Bonadifier.” The channel now features an image of Bonad — a drainer with a mental disability — and the message, “never forget what he took from you.”

Pink Drainer’s cybercriminal toolkit helped steal $53 million from over 9000 “participants” in 2023. The Security researcher behind Pink Drainer defended the service, saying, “I don’t phish, I just code.

Read Cointelegraph’s crypto and artificial intelligence (AI) guide to learn more about phishing attacks and how to avoid online hacks.

The Pink Drainer announcement continues a pattern in the crypto-draining space by high-profile drainers. In November 2023,  Inferno Drainer shut down after helping steal $70 million, preceded by Monkey Drainer in March 2023 — shutting down after helping steal $13 million.  

While the shutdown of drainer services offers crypto users some temporary reprieve, the existence of other drainers like Angel Drainer suggests the threat is far from over. In February, Angel Drainer stole over $400,000 from 128 crypto wallets after targeting users with a malicious Safe Vault contact.