The DeFi project WLFI reported that it has utilized an on-chain blacklist mechanism to successfully thwart attack attempts targeting compromised users.

The decentralized finance (DeFi) project World Liberty Financial (WLFI) stated that it successfully blocked several attack attempts during the token launch event by employing a proactive security mechanism: directly adding compromised wallets to a blacklist on-chain.

In a statement on September 3, the development team affirmed that the attacks did not originate from smart contract vulnerabilities, but from users leaking private keys. According to WLFI, a designated wallet executed 'mass blacklisting' transactions to disable compromised accounts just before the official launch, successfully protecting Lockbox — a vesting mechanism designed to ensure the safety of locked token allocations.

The project is also working with affected users to help restore access to their assets, demonstrating a balanced approach between centralized security and decentralization in community support.

The WLFI launch event unlocked 24.6 billion tokens, becoming an attractive target for bad actors. In addition to direct attacks, the analysis company Bubblemaps also discovered numerous sophisticated scams, notably 'bundled clones' — counterfeit smart contracts mimicking real projects to steal assets.

Yu Xian, the founder of the security company SlowMist, also warned that some users have had their tokens drained due to phishing attacks exploiting the Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP)-7702. This is an upgrade in Ethereum's Pectra roadmap, allowing regular wallets (EOA) to temporarily function as smart contract wallets to improve user experience. However, this feature also creates a new attack vector.

According to smart contract auditing expert Arda Usman, attackers can trick victims into signing an apparently harmless offchain message, then leverage that signature to initiate an onchain transaction, thereby seizing assets in the wallet.