PEPE investors are at risk of losing their coins following a recent security incident. On-chain security firm Blockaid drew attention to a front-end attack on the meme coin’s website that could potentially drain users’ funds.
In an X post, Blockaid stated that its system identified a front-end attack on PEPE’s website. The security firm further revealed that the site contains a code of Inferno Drainer. This malware is known to be used to automatically drain users’ wallets, which puts holders at risk of losing their coins.
The Inferno Drainer malware is said to redirect visitors on the website to a fake portal, where they risk clicking phishing links that are designed to drain their wallets. As such, the security firm advised investors and community members to avoid the website until the issue is resolved.
Blockaid’s Threat Intelligence Team also told Cointelegraph that the Inferno Drainer code detected on the website matched a known drainer family they regularly identify. Meanwhile, the team has yet to make a statement on their official X platform regarding the malware.
Notably, the website on the PEPE X platform redirects to a fake website (pepedotvip) instead of the original site (pepedotcom). The website also promotes a PEPE derivative, which is believed to be a rug coin. The price remained steady amid reports of the hack, climbing as high as 4% yesterday.
However, the meme coin price has since retraced as part of a broader crypto market correction led by Bitcoin. The third-largest meme coin by market cap is also down over 75% year-to-date (YTD) thanks to the recent crypto market crash.
The PEPE front-end isn’t the first to fall victim to an Inferno Drainer attack this year. Earlier in the year, Blockaid had identified that CoinMarketCap’s frontend was compromised by what appeared to be an Inferno Drainer. Back then, the CoinMarketCap website displayed a pop-up prompting users to verify their wallets, which ultimately drained their funds.
The BNB Chain X account was also a victim of this Inferno Drainer in October. The hackers posted links that directed users to websites that employed the Inferno Drainer toolkit. This incident resulted in a total loss of around $8,000 for users, which the BNB Chain promised to reimburse.
Blockaid last year revealed that the Inferno Drainer group stole $80 million from Web3 users by exploiting older, malicious decentralized applications. This kind of scam is also said to have tripled last year, resulting in significant losses for investors.
At the time of writing, the meme coin price is trading at around $0.000004697, down over 3% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Highlights: US prosecutors requested a 12-year prison sentence for Do Kwon after the Terra collapse. Terraform’s $40 billion downfall caused huge losses and sparked a long downturn in crypto markets. Do Kwon will face sentencing on December 11 and must give up $19 million in earnings. US prosecutors have asked a judge to give Do Kwon, Terraform Labs co-founder, a 12-year prison sentence for his role in the remarkable $40 billion collapse of the Terra and Luna tokens. The request also seeks to finalize taking away Kwon’s criminal earnings. The court filing came in New York’s Southern District on Thursday. This is about four months after Kwon admitted guilt on two charges: wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud. Prosecutors said Kwon caused more losses than Samuel Bankman-Fried, Alexander Mashinsky, and Karl Sebastian Greenwood combined. U.S. prosecutors have asked a New York federal judge to sentence Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon to 12 years in prison, calling his role in the 2022 TerraUSD collapse a “colossal” fraud that triggered broader crypto-market failures, including the downfall of FTX. Sentencing is… — Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) December 5, 2025 Terraform Collapse Shakes Crypto Market Authorities explained that Terraform’s collapse affected the entire crypto market. They said it helped trigger what is now called the ‘Crypto Winter.’ The filing stressed that Kwon’s conduct harmed many investors and the broader crypto world. On Thursday, prosecutors said Kwon must give up just over $19 million. They added that they will not ask for any additional restitution. They said: “The cost and time associated with calculating each investor-victim’s loss, determining whether the victim has already been compensated through the pending bankruptcy, and then paying out a percentage of the victim’s losses, will delay payment and diminish the amount of money ultimately paid to victims.” Authorities will sentence Do Kwon on December 11. They charged him in March 2023 with multiple crimes, including securities fraud, market manipulation, money laundering, and wire fraud. All connections are tied to his role at Terraform. After Terra fell in 2022, authorities lost track of Kwon until they arrested him in Montenegro on unrelated charges and sent him to the U.S. Do Kwon’s Legal Case and Sentencing In April last year, a jury ruled that both Terraform and Kwon committed civil fraud. They found the company and its co-founder misled investors about how the business operated and its finances. Jay Clayton, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, submitted the sentencing request in November. TERRA STATEMENT: “We are very disappointed with the verdict, which we do not believe is supported by the evidence. We continue to maintain that the SEC does not have the legal authority to bring this case at all, and we are carefully weighing our options and next steps.” — Zack Guzmán (@zGuz) April 5, 2024 The news of Kwon’s sentencing caused Terraform’s token, LUNA, to jump over 40% in one day, from $0.07 to $0.10. Still, this rise remains small compared to its all-time high of more than $19, which the ecosystem reached before collapsing in May 2022. In a November court filing, Do Kwon’s lawyers asked for a maximum five-year sentence. They argued for a shorter term partly because he could face up to 40 years in prison in South Korea, where prosecutors are also pursuing a case against him. The legal team added that even if Kwon serves time in the U.S., he would not be released freely. He would be moved from prison to an immigration detention center and then sent to Seoul to face pretrial detention for his South Korea charges. eToro Platform Best Crypto Exchange Over 90 top cryptos to trade Regulated by top-tier entities User-friendly trading app 30+ million users 9.9 Visit eToro eToro is a multi-asset investment platform. The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk. Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment, and you should not expect to be protected if something goes wrong.

