🔴Scan DeFi — From +100M OF MC TO Bankruptcy (2022)

The first blockchain cybersecurity ecosystem… got hacked. A brutal irony, but one of my greatest teachers.

🧠 What Was Scan DeFi?

In 2021, one of my blockchain startups reached a $110M market cap at its peak, a wild ride that taught me everything about market cycles, digital community dynamics, and the power (and risk) of momentum. It was a crash course in rapid growth, but also in the importance of building products that endure beyond the hype.

Scan DeFi was a platform focused on cybersecurity and anti-fraud solutions within the blockchain space. It was born out of a clear need: thousands of investors were losing money daily to scams, fraudulent tokens, and malicious smart contracts.

🧩 What Did We Build?

Scan DeFi aimed to become the daily safety tool for crypto investors. It included:

• 🧪 Smart Contract Scanner: automated auditing engine to detect vulnerabilities before investing

• 🧱 Decentralized Blacklist: a community-based system to report wallets tied to scams or fraud

• 🎓 Scan DeFi Academy: educational content focused on crypto and cybersecurity literacy

• 🕹️ ScanGames: gamified security training experiences

• 🔄 ScanSwap: a swap platform with built-in risk alerts

• 🌐 Website and components: multiple tools developed or in late-stage beta

📈 Key Milestones

Despite the outcome, we reached major milestones in a short period:

• 💰 Generated over $10M in volume through our $SCAN token

• 👥 Built a community of 3,000+ holders

• 🚀 Scaled the team from 5 to 45 people

• 💵 100M+ of Market cap in our ath

• 🤝 Formed 40+ strategic partnerships with brands and entrepreneurs

• 🧱 Delivered functional tools and a partially live platform

• 🔥 Created high traction and brand visibility in the Web3 ecosystem

💥 What Happened?

While on a trip to Amsterdam to close an investment round, we fell victim to a highly sophisticated phishing attack.

The individuals claiming to represent a VC firm turned out to be cybercriminals. They exploited our trust to gain access to critical project accounts and infrastructure.

This led to:

• 🧨 Loss of access to core assets

• 📉 Massive reputational hit: the irony of a cybersecurity project being hacked went viral

• 💔 More than 40 partners withdrew support or turned against us

• 💸 Collapse of investor trust and liquidity, which led to the end of development

🧠 What I Learned

“We tried to protect others… and were the ones who got attacked. But that fall taught me more than any success ever did.”

• 🔒 Cybersecurity starts with your internal operations, not just your product

• ⚠️ No matter how fast you build, if you don’t protect it, you’ll lose it overnight

• 🧍 The wrong partner can cost more than 100 wrong code lines

• 📢 In Web3, reputation is fragile — you win or lose the crowd in hours

• ⚔️ The real skill isn’t building. It’s surviving what comes after

🔁 What Remains?

Though Scan DeFi never reached its full potential, it left behind:

• A strong technical foundation

• A team forged in the fire

• Unforgettable experience in leadership during crisis

• A deep understanding of how resilience, paranoia, and vision must coexist