Of degens and defrauders: Using open-source investigative tools to investigate decentralized finance frauds and money laundering

Fraud across the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem is growing, with victims losing billions to DeFi scams every year. However, there a disconnect between reported value of these and associated legal prosecutions. We use open-source investigative tools (1) investigate potential frauds involving Ethereum tokens using on-chain data token smart contract analysis, (2) ways proceeds from were subsequently laundered. The analysis enabled us uncover transaction-based evidence several rug pull pump-and-dump schemes, identify their perpetrators’ money laundering tactics cash-out methods. pulls less sophisticated than anticipated, techniques also rudimentary many funds ended up at centralized exchanges. This study demonstrates how can extract that could be used in court law prosecute frauds. Additionally, we are