On-Chain Forensics: A Technical Breakdown of the MUBARA Pump Exploiting Binance co-CEO Yi He’s WeChat

For those who understand the language of the blockchain, the MUBARA pump-and-dump scheme, which leveraged the compromised Binance co-CEO Yi He’s WeChat, offers a fascinating case study. This was not a random sequence of events; it was a carefully timed, calculated exploit tracked down to two specific wallet addresses. The evidence confirms classic front-running activity.

Wallet Setup and Pre-Positioning

The technical clock started seven hours before the fraudulent posts appeared on WeChat. Attackers created two fresh, likely unlinked wallets, funded with just enough USDT to execute the pre-buy. They acquired 21.16 million MUBARA tokens for a relatively modest 19,479 USDT. This low-profile acquisition minimized the initial price impact, securing their dominant position before the publicity hit. This phase is critical: without this pre-positioning, the exploit would have failed to generate meaningful profit.

The Execution: Liquidity Injection and Price Surge

Credit from Coin Live Update

The compromised Binance co-CEO Yi He’s WeChat account served as the liquidity trigger. The flood of retail buying created by the high-profile promotion pushed the MUBARA token price from $0.001 to its peak near $0.008. This massive, sudden increase created an opportunity for the two attacker wallets to execute their primary function: the sell-off.

The Dump and Profit Calculation

Once the price peaked, the wallets began selling, confirming the pump-and-dump nature. They sold 11.95 million tokens for 43,520 USDT, locking in immediate profits. The initial investment of 19,479 USDT quickly translated into a net realized gain of around $24,041, with unsold tokens retaining an estimated value of $31,000 at the time of the analysis. The subsequent 60% price collapse after their exit confirms the total dependence of the price surge on the external social media catalyst. The forensic trail is clean and undeniable.

The Binance co-CEO Yi He’s Hack as a Hybrid Threat

This incident exemplifies the hybrid threat model in modern crypto crime. The security flaw was Web2 (WeChat’s account recovery), but the criminal act, the profit generation, and the trail were all recorded on Web3 (BNB Chain). Addressing this requires a unified security strategy, recognizing that a weak link in one realm compromises the integrity and reputation of the other.