DeFi Forensics: Investigating Rug Pulls, Tracing Developers, and Auditing Smart Contract Risks

Rug pulls drained over $2.8 billion from DeFi investors in 2025 alone. You do not need a Chainalysis subscription or a law enforcement badge to investigate them. You need to know where to look. This book teaches the complete on-chain investigation workflow used by blockchain forensic analysts to audit token contracts before investing, trace deployer wallets across chains, detect wash trading and manufactured volume, follow stolen funds from pool drain to CEX cash-out, and build evidence packages that law enforcement can act on within hours. Every technique runs on free tools: Etherscan, Slither, GoPlus Security API, Bubblemaps, DEXTools, and Arkham Intelligence. No institutional access required. By the end of this book, you will be able to: - Identify the three categories of rug pull from on-chain behavioral signatures before investing - Audit any ERC-20, BEP-20, or SPL token's smart contract for hidden backdoors using Slither and GoPlus in under eight minutes - Trace a deployer wallet's complete transaction history and connect serial scam deployments across multiple chains - De-anonymize a pseudonymous developer using GitHub history, social media metadata, and CEX deposit KYC intersection signals - Detect wash trading and circular volume inflation in DEX pairs using the transfer event log - Map stolen fund flows from a liquidity drain through mixer hops to centralized exchange off-ramp addresses - Distinguish a legitimate audit badge from a fabricated one and evaluate audit scope for hidden exclusions - Construct a legally usable forensic report with chain-of-custody evidence suitable for IC3, FBI, and FinCEN - Apply DOJ 2025 rug pull prosecution guidance and MiCA Article 83 to determine the correct reporting channels for your jurisdiction >The investigation methodology builds from a complete anatomy of DeFi fraud mechanics through a ten-layer pre-investment audit stack, live-phase tokenomics and volume analysis, deployer profiling, post-drain fund tracing, mixer and bridge forensics, and structured evidence packaging for law enforcement and civil litigation. Includes six verified real-world case studies: CATFI (South Korea's first DEX rug pull prosecution, May 2026), SafeYield Finance ($12.4M drain, fake audit badge), Meerkat Finance (78% volume from 12 developer-controlled wallets), AnubisDAO ($60M drain in 20 minutes), Dogecoin 3.0 (undetectable smart contract backdoor), and Thodex ($2.52B, criminal conviction). For DeFi investors, blockchain security researchers, compliance analysts, and law enforcement professionals who want the practitioner's investigation playbook, not a warning checklist. Scroll up and buy now to start your first pre-launch audit today.