GENIUS Act Fosters Proliferation of Fake Stablecoins

The GENIUS Act has had an unexpected consequence in the crypto market: a surge in the creation of stablecoins has led to a significant increase in fake tokens and malicious dApps.

According to research from Blockaid, there are over 54,000 bogus tokens impersonating known stablecoins. The majority of these clones target $USDT, with over 34,000 fake tokens detected, followed by $USDC with around 12,000. Other popular targets include PayPal's PYUSD and DAI.

The fake tokens have been distributed across various networks, including Ethereum (41.3%), BNB Smart Chain (28.6%), and Base (14.8%). Layer-2 networks such as Arbitrum, Polygon, and Optimism have also seen a significant number of clones.