Monkey Drainer

Overview

Monkey Drainer was among the first widely used "drainer-as-a-service" operations and helped popularize the model in 2022. It rented phishing/wallet-draining scripts to scammers in exchange for a cut of the proceeds, and became known for targeting high-value NFTs such as Bored Ape Yacht Club — luring victims with fake mint, airdrop, or "claim" sites that prompted malicious approvals or transfers. ^[1][2]

Wind-down and legacy

In early 2023 the operator announced Monkey Drainer was "shutting down," said it was "time to move on to something better," and pointed "fellow cyber-gangsters" to a rival service (Venom). Estimates of the losses it facilitated range from about $13 million to $16.5 million. Its retirement directly fed the rise of successor drainers including Venom, Inferno, and Pink, cementing drainer-as-a-service as a persistent category of Web3 crime. ^[1][2]

Bracketed numbers refer to the numbered sources listed below.