Family, the news in the crypto circle today is even more explosive than the newly launched MEME. The PEPE that became popular with the 'Sad Frog' has had its official website hacked! When you click in, it’s not the familiar frog avatar, but it directly redirects to a phishing link, and the assets in your wallet could be taken away in minutes.
The security team has long confirmed that the hacker has embedded a script called Inferno Drainer in the frontend. Don’t think this is just ordinary hacking; listen to my advice: this is not just a crisis for PEPE, but a 'systemic alarm' for the entire Meme circle. It's not that hackers are too arrogant; it's that this field is running around naked, with no protection, no audit, and relying entirely on emotions to hold on.
One, the brutal reality of this attack: losing the frontend is deadlier than on-chain vulnerabilities.
Many newcomers always think that "as long as I don’t sign, my assets are safe." This idea is like writing your wallet password on your forehead. If something goes wrong on-chain, there are traces to follow; the data is all public, and if something really happens, you can trace it through records. But if the frontend is compromised, it’s like your front door’s keyhole has been switched by hackers; on the surface, the door seems fine, but as soon as you open it, you walk straight into a den of thieves.
How terrifying is it when the frontend is hacked? You think you clicked the link yourself, but in fact, a script is operating behind the scenes: a pop-up just makes you sign automatically, disguised as a “connect wallet” button to deceive you into authorizing, and even secretly alters your trading channel to transfer your assets away without notifying you. This time, the Inferno Drainer used is no small-time tool; it has previously siphoned off tens of millions of dollars and is a "professional harvesting tool" in the hacker community.
In plain terms, no matter how decentralized it is on-chain, the project's official website and documents are centralized "lifelines." Hackers don’t need to bother attacking the contract; as long as they can compromise the frontend, they can make a bunch of retail investors dance around, and this kind of loss is often a "dumb loss" where you don’t even know how you authorized it, making it much harder to recover your assets.
Two, why PEPE? Hackers specifically target the "foolish, rich, and high-traffic" sheep.
Hackers are never philanthropists; their targets are more precise than GPS: whoever has a lot of traffic, many retail investors, strong FOMO sentiment, and low safety awareness, they pounce on. PEPE is practically a tailor-made target for hackers; as the "traffic heavyweight" of the Meme circle, its official website visits can overload servers, and half of the users are novices with a "let's take a gamble" mindset who rush in at the sight of the frog avatar, without checking if the website domain is correct.
Recently, the Meme sentiment has just picked up, and everyone feels that "a new wave of market is coming." The safety string has already loosened. This stage of "heat rising, vigilance falling" is the golden harvesting period for hackers. Don’t think PEPE is the only target; today it’s PEPE, tomorrow it could be the next suddenly popular meme project. Essentially, it's all the "original sin of traffic" taking the blame.
Three, the fatal contradiction in the Meme circle: decentralized emotions matched with centralized entry points.
The most ironic part of this matter is: the core logic of Meme coins is "decentralized emotional resonance," yet the entry points that carry this emotion—official websites, community links, trading navigation—are all centralized. It’s like shouting "freedom and equality" while having your home in someone else's castle; if they want to shut the door and let the dogs out, it’s as easy as pie.
Moreover, hackers' ambitions go far beyond stealing money. They target PEPE to amplify panic through its traffic, causing everyone in the Meme circle to be on edge; secondly, they create a trust crisis so that retail investors panic and sell off, and when the community is in chaos, internal conflicts arise, naturally causing the project's value to drop. It’s possible that behind this isn’t just a simple hacker, but competitors stirring the pot, or manipulators using bad news to wash out investors. This is the most vulnerable part of the Meme circle: emotions can support a hundredfold increase, but they can also be shattered by a single attack.
Four, is PEPE going to cool down? Panic short-term, but it won't die in the long term.
Surely someone will ask: should I quickly sell the PEPE I have? My answer is: don’t make hasty moves. In the short term, panic sentiment will definitely cause a stir; new users may hesitate to enter the market, while old users rush to sell, so it's normal for trading volume to drop for a while. But in the long run, this incident won’t harm the fundamentals of PEPE.
The reason is simple: First, the attack only targeted the frontend, and the contract itself had no issues, which is like your front door being pried open while the safe remains intact; second, the core of Meme coins is community consensus, not the official website. Look at Dogecoin, the founder ran away long ago, yet it still rises, right? The PEPE website is a minor issue; as long as the community remains intact and the sentiment is still there, it won't crash.
What truly affects the subsequent trends is how quickly the PEPE team responds and repairs, whether they will give users an explanation, and how transparent it will be. If they drag their feet and hide things, that would really undermine the fundamentals.
Five, practical advice for retail investors: Don’t wait until you’ve been cut to think about safety.
This wave of the PEPE incident, rather than a crisis, is more like a "coming-of-age ceremony" for the Meme circle. It clearly tells us: In the early stages of a bull market, the hotter the project, the more dangerous it is. Hackers are more eager for the market to come so they can take advantage of the chaos.
Finally, I’d like to remind everyone of a few key points to avoid pitfalls. Remember them and don't find it troublesome: ① Don't click on short links in community chats at random; always manually enter the official website domain and check if it has "official certification"; ② When connecting wallets, take a good look at the authorization content; if it’s not something you initiated, click "reject"; ③ Don’t put all assets in one wallet; diversify your storage so that even if you do get caught, you can minimize losses.
