In a startling announcement, the notorious crypto-wallet draining tool, Pink Drainer, declared its retirement after achieving its goal of facilitating the theft of over $85 million in crypto assets. The announcement was made via Telegram, catching the crypto community by surprise.
“After this message’s publication, we will begin winding down all of our infrastructure. All stored information will be wiped and securely destroyed,” stated the message from Pink Drainer.
The developer behind Pink Drainer, simply known as Pink, remained tight-lipped when approached by Cointelegraph, offering only a terse farewell before deleting the entire Telegram chat history.
A notable figure in the crypto community, CryptoSleuth ZachXBT, shared a screenshot of the final message from Pink Drainer, marking the end of its operations after facilitating thefts totaling over $75 million. PeckShieldAlert confirmed the shutdown, revealing that Pink Drainer addresses had staked up to 18.1 million Dai into Spark, representing about 1.35% of the total sDAI tokens.
Data from Dune Analytics revealed the staggering impact of Pink Drainer, which has stolen over $85 million from more than 21,100 victims since July 2023.
The Telegram channel previously known as Pink Drainer has now rebranded to “Bonadifier,” featuring an image of Bonad — a drainer with a mental disability — along with the message, “never forget what he took from you.”
Pink Drainer’s toolkit was instrumental in stealing $53 million from over 9,000 victims in 2023. Despite the controversy, the developer behind Pink Drainer defended his creation, stating, “I don’t phish, I just code.”
The shutdown of Pink Drainer mirrors similar exits by other high-profile drainers. In November 2023, Inferno Drainer ceased operations after helping steal $70 million, following Monkey Drainer’s closure in March 2023, which had facilitated $13 million in thefts.
While the shutdowns offer temporary relief, the presence of other drainer services like Angel Drainer indicates that the threat remains. Angel Drainer, for instance, stole over $400,000 from 128 crypto wallets in February using a malicious Safe Vault contract.