There is a story behind every token generation event.
While many mark the advent of fresh funding rounds and exciting new innovations in Web3, some hide infinite mint attacks aimed at market manipulation.
Irrespectively, token mints are pivotal blockchain events with enormous potential to shape the supply dynamics and demand to be meticulously tracked by all market participants. Today, we spotlight how Aegis alerts can be used for detecting token creation (minting) events and how both individual traders and project teams may benefit from monitoring them.
“Aegis Use Cases” uncovers the hidden potential of our AI-powered tool. This article series explores how individual investors and project teams can leverage our flagship product for maximum utility, from tracking TVL changes and smart contract events to monitoring function calls and backtesting past security breaches. See our previous articles to learn how Aegis may be used for Total Value Locked (TVL) tracking and Event Listening.
Key Takeaways
Token minting events, as the name suggests, chronicle the inception of new tokens on the blockchain. Such events shape the market forces that influence token prices.
Lossless Aegis continuously tracks token creation events of the monitored ERC20 addresses, enabling users to set up real-time alerts for mints above the specified token threshold.
Aegis alerts are useful for keeping track of unannounced token generation events that may dilute one’s stake and can provide an early warning against infinite mint attacks.
Why should you track Token Mints?
Most commonly, token generation events are associated with sudden bursts of market volatility. An unannounced airdrop or a new round of public sale can substantially increase the total token supply and lead to a steep drop in token price, affecting the portfolio value of those caught unaware. Both retail and institutional investors would benefit from adjusting their positions around these pivotal moments.
Staying up-to-date with minting events is also a crucial DYOR (Do Your Own Research) step before making investment decisions. The frequency of token generation events often speaks volumes about the project’s tokenomics and financial discipline. Unannounced or large-scale mints might be a sign of poor financial planning or potential mismanagement.
Crucially, tracking minting events can help everyone limit their financial exposure to projects that fall victim to scams and hacks. In the past, some token values have been debased by infinite printing schemes carried out by malicious actors. In the Cover Protocol exploit, for example, the white hat hacker managed to mint and dump 40 quintillion $COVER tokens, which subsequently lost 97% of their value and never fully recovered even after the funds were returned.
Aegis Alerts for Token Mints: Use Cases
When you add a type ERC20 address to monitor, Aegis will display an option under the “Alerts” tab to set up a trigger called “Token Mints.” This feature will detect and issue an alert through your specified notification channel whenever a new token creation event is detected.
You also have the option to specify the token threshold to only be alerted of minting events above the specified amount. This may be useful if you are tracking an ERC20 contract that frequently mints small amounts as part of routine operations yet only wish to be notified of substantial token generation events. Otherwise, you may simply leave the threshold at “1”.
Retail and institutional investors with well-diversified portfolios would benefit tremendously from mint alerts. Often, the sheer volume of tokens and projects one has invested in can become overwhelming. Real-time alerts for significant minting events can serve as a compass, helping traders focus on the most critical events that require their immediate attention.
Another often overlooked use case of mint tracking is the oversight it provides over various stablecoins. As the gateways to crypto, many stablecoins have sought to gain the popularity of Tether, the unrivaled champion. Unsurprisingly, tracking their token mints can offer not only vital insights into the overall health of the Web3 economies but also a glimpse into the dynamics of the stablecoin wars.
Naturally, project teams may also wish to proactively monitor their own contracts and receive immediate SMS notifications, even if offline, of unplanned mints that may signal the initial stages of an imminent exploit. Such oversight enables teams to keep tabs on their mission-critical contracts and reassure their community and stakeholders of their commitment to transparency and project integrity.
“Every token generation event creates ripples, shapes community sentiment, and influences market dynamics. With Aegis V2, Lossless is pushing the boundaries of smart contract monitoring to ensure our community stays a step ahead, safeguarded against token value debasing and infinite mint attacks.”
– Kleanthi Vongli, Lossless CMO.
To showcase Aegis alerts in action, Lossless is launching a dedicated Telegram channel, where an alert will be sent every time tokens are minted for our list of select contracts. Everyone is welcome to join and benefit from the insights.
Alternatively, if you would like to monitor additional contracts, you can craft your own tailor-made monitoring system at aegis.lossless.io.
About Lossless
Lossless is a trendsetter in Web3 security architecture. Our solutions empower projects to protect their communities from smart contract exploits and the associated financial loss.
The Lossless protocol wraps ERC-20 standard tokens in an additional layer of transactional security, providing project creators with a fail-safe against malicious exploits. Transactions flagged as malicious are frozen and can be reverted subject to an investigation.
Aegis, our latest flagship product, offers automated threat monitoring and firewall-like features. Project teams can utilize its real-time alerts and zero-integration monitoring capabilities to identify possible threats before they turn into exploits.
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