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ETH DeFiLlama founder exposes fake app: Paying out of his pocket proves a scam, and Apple finally removes it.
0xngmi, the anonymous founder of DeFi data analysis website DeFiLlama, revealed that he downloaded a fake DeFiLlama app on the Apple App Store, transferred a small amount of money into a small wallet, and allowed the app to steal the money, thereby proving that it is a fraud software. Although the team submitted multiple complaints of counterfeiting and trademark infringement in the past few months, Apple ignored them, only a few days after downloading the app in 0xngmi, Apple finally removed it.
How did the founder of DeFiLlama push Apple to remove fake apps?
On August 15, 2026, 0xngmi posted a series of posts on the X platform stating that the DeFiLlama team spent months reporting a counterfeit DeFiLlama app in the app store through Apple's abuse and trademark complaint channels, alleging that it had impersonation and trademark infringement, but there was never a response. The fake app remained in the store until 0xngmi deposited a small amount of cryptocurrency into a wallet, installed the fake app, and confirmed that it had stolen the funds. When he reported the results to Apple, the app was removed within days.
"I know it's ridiculous that this must be done to save users from an app that is clearly a scam," he wrote, adding that the matter was made public so that other encryption teams "no longer waste time like we do."
0xngmi described the fake app as just a rough copy of DeFiLlama, possibly written by someone "based on feeling", with the purpose of inducing users to enter mnemonic words-secret recovery words that can fully control the cryptocurrency wallet. He pointed out that the same group of scammers also targeted other mainstream encryption brands, launched a large number of similar-looking apps, and registered companies that had gone bankrupt to pass Apple's identity verification. Take DeFiLlama as an example. The fraudster used a couple's shoeshine store that was registered about 40 years ago but is no longer operating to complete the "Know Your Customer" verification.
Why is the official launch of the DeFiLlama app delayed?
The DeFiLlama team decided to delay the official launch of the app for several months until all counterfeit versions were cleared to ensure that no users fell into the scam due to accidental downloads. DeFiLlama has previously launched LlamaSearch, a vetted directory of cryptocurrency domain names, precisely because search and store results are often tampered with.
Impersonation incidents similar to the Apple App Store have also occurred on other platforms. On August 14, 2026, a Hyperliquid trader was directed to the exchange's clone website due to pay-per-click Google advertising, losing approximately $550,000 in USDC. In May 2026, scammers stole more than $400,000 from Uniswap users through fake Google ad lists, of which about 146 Ethereum pieces flowed into two attacker addresses. In November last year, a fake Hyperliquid app also appeared on the Google Play Store.
