Week 21 delivered $32,378,235 in rug pull extraction on PancakeSwap V2 — a 15.7% decline from Week 20’s $38,418,039. But the headline number hides a more important signal: rug pull events jumped 24.4%, from 5,439 to 6,768. More operators entered the market. Average value per rug fell. The W20 high-value concentrated extraction is giving way to broader-volume, lower-margin operations — a pattern that historically precedes another spike cycle.
The 21-week running total now stands at $602,689,131 — crossing the $600M milestone. On average, retail investors on PancakeSwap V2 have lost $28.7M every single week of 2026.
This Week’s Numbers — Week 21, 2026 · PancakeSwap V2
Week-over-Week: More Rugs, Lower Value Per Rug
The divergence between fraud value (-15.7%) and rug event count (+24.4%) is the most important signal in the W21 data. These two metrics usually move together — more events mean more extraction. When they diverge, it indicates a structural shift in who is operating and how.
| Week | Pools | Rug Events | Added | Removed | Fraud Value | WoW |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-W17 | 10,219 | 3,864 | $32.3M | $44.8M | $12,568,217 | — |
| 2026-W18 | 7,861 | 3,680 | $33.0M | $48.1M | $15,141,011 | +20.5% |
| 2026-W19 | 9,772 | 3,098 | $27.3M | $41.0M | $13,727,828 | −9.3% |
| 2026-W20 | 10,756 | 5,439 | $51.5M | $89.9M | $38,418,039 | +179.9% |
| 2026-W21 | 11,098 | 6,768 ↑ | $69.6M | $102.0M | $32,378,235 | −15.7% |
What the Divergence Means
In W20, a small number of large-scale operators extracted high value per pool — the removed-to-added liquidity ratio was 1.75x, meaning creators removed $1.75 for every $1 they seeded. In W21 that ratio dropped to 1.47x, but rug event volume surged to 6,768 — the highest count since Week 13.
This pattern suggests two things happening simultaneously. First, the high-value operators from W20 partially exited or reduced activity after a high-extraction week — consistent with the compression-then-spike-then-compress cycle visible across the full 21-week dataset. Second, a new wave of lower-sophistication operators entered, attracted by the same market sentiment that drove W20’s spike. More actors, running smaller schemes, producing higher event volume but lower total extraction per event.
The 1.47x ratio is still significantly above 1.0x — creators are still removing 47% more than they add. Combined with the highest rug event count in eight weeks, W21 is not a sign of the fraud industry cooling down. It is a sign of it broadening.
21-Week Running Total: $602.7M
Week 21 pushes the cumulative total past the $600M milestone — $602,689,131 extracted from retail investors on PancakeSwap V2 in 21 weeks of 2026.
| Metric | W1–W21 Total |
|---|---|
| Total rug pull events | 110,463 |
| Net retail losses | $602,689,131 |
| Average weekly extraction | ~$28.7M |
| 5-week trailing avg (W17–W21) | ~$22.4M |
| Peak week | W04 — $53,429,411 |
| Highest rug event week | W05 — 6,145 events |
The 5-week trailing average (W17–W21) sits at $22.4M — below the 21-week mean of $28.7M, but the rug event count trend is climbing. For the full methodology and the original 20-week dataset that trained Rug Pull Detector V3, see our $569M PancakeSwap V2 analysis.
How to Protect Yourself
With 6,768 rug pull events in a single week, the probability of any random new pool being fraudulent remains extremely high. ChainAware’s free tools screen any pool or token in under two minutes:
- Rug Pull Detector V3 — behavioral analysis of the contract creator + smart contract code inspection. 90.1% prediction accuracy. Free, no signup.
- Fraud Detector — full behavioral history of any deployer wallet. 98% accuracy.
- Wallet Auditor — for P2P transactions. Audit any receiving wallet before sending funds.
About This Tracker
The ChainAware Weekly Rug Pull Tracker measures the most basic, mathematically verifiable form of rug pull on PancakeSwap V2: a contract creator adds liquidity (Mint event), retail investors buy in, and the creator removes more than they added (Burn event). The difference is confirmed retail loss. This definition is deliberately conservative — it excludes LP token transfer rug pulls, unlocked token sell-offs, honeypot contracts, and associated wallet extraction. The numbers reported here represent the confirmed floor. For complete methodology, see chainaware.ai/resources/rugpull-verification ↗.