Many investors have been left hanging as news broke yesterday that one of the new yield farming protocols running on Binance Smart Chain was hacked. It is purported that 73,635 BNB and another 13 million BUSD were stolen from Meerkat Finance in the hack. In total, over $30 million was compromised.

It is unclear whether the protocol was truly hacked or whether the incident was a well-calculated rug pull. However, all indicators point to a rug pull. As of press time, Meerkat Finance had deactivated its social media channels, one of the primary markers of a rug pull.

It goes with the saying that all that glitters is not gold. Rug pulls lure investors in with mouth-watering offers. Once their target is met, they vanish with investors’ funds. In this case, the story is that the alleged hacker gained access to the account by changing the protocol’s smart contract after gaining entry into the original deployer’s account. This suggests that the private key of the deployer was either compromised or he is the alleged hacker behind the scenes.

Whilst there is very little Binance can do to remedy the situation, the exchange has requested community members to provide any additional information about the case.

The lesson is a clear and resounding one – “look before you leap.”