The project had attracted customers by advertising yields of 76–95%.
Hypervault rug pulls for $3.6 million
Only days after the Hypervault yield farming platform announced on Twitter that they'd surpassed $5 million in total value locked, the platform suddenly shut down its website and social media accounts. Simultaneously, the crypto security firm PeckShield observed an "abnormal withdrawal" of a large quantity of various crypto assets priced at around $3.6 million, which were swapped to 752 ETH (~$3.1 million) and laundered through Tornado Cash.
Credix vanishes after $4.5 million exploit
The defi lending protocol Credix lost $4.5 million to an exploit after a hacker gained control of an admin wallet and used it to mint tokens and drain liquidity pools.
Credix subsequently announced they had negotiated with the thief, who they said agreed to return the funds "in return for money fully paid by the credix treasury". They did not disclose how much they paid to the hacker.
However, shortly after this announcement, the company deleted its social media accounts and disappeared, leading some to wonder if the "hack" may have in fact been a rug pull by insiders. The promised reimbursements have not yet materialized.
Kinto token crashes; community claims rug pull, Kinto claims hack
The price of Kinto's $K token suddenly crashed 90%, sparking accusations of a rug pull. A tranche of investor tokens had just been unlocked recently, leading some to speculate that investors dumped their tokens on retail buyers.
However, Kinto blamed the token crash on the exploit that was recently disclosed by VennBuild, claiming on Twitter that "we got hacked by a state actor". Venn seemed to corroborate Kinto's explanation that the crash was related to the exploit, tweeting that although they had tried to warn all vulnerable projects before publicly disclosing the bug, "Sadly the Kinto token was not found despite being vulnerable, and exploited without time to mitigate."
Kinto has announced a plan to try to fundraise to cover a $1.4 million loss in liquidity, then create a new $K token based on a snapshot of previous token holdings.
Argentinian president Javier Milei promotes memecoin that then crashes 95% in apparent $100 million+ rug pull
A tweet from Argentina's president Javier Milei promoted a memecoin called Libra, which he described as a "private project [that] will [be] dedicated to encouraging the growth of the Argentine economy by funding small Argentine businesses and startups". The token quickly soared in price as traders poured in.
However, within hours of the launch, insiders began selling off their holdings of the token. The token had been highly concentrated among insiders, with around 82% of the token held in a small cluster of apparently insider addresses. Those insiders cashed out around $107 million, crashing the token price by around 95%.
After the crash, Milei deleted his tweet promoting the project. He later claimed he was "not aware of the details of the project and after having become aware of it I decided not to continue spreading the word (that is why I deleted the tweet)."
AlleyCat project developer takes presale money to fund gambling habit
The creator of the AlleyCat Solana-based cryptocurrency project has reportedly taken about 600 SOL (~$130,000) raised during the project's presale and transferred it to gambling platforms including Sportsbet.io and Bitcasino. Although the project raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in presale funds, stating it was needed for token liquidity on launch, only 18 SOL (~$11,000) was ever used for liquidity.
Altogether, around $827,000 has passed through the AlleyCat creator's Sportsbet.io account in seven months. Crypto scam-spotting account Rug Pull Finder has alleged that the AlleyCat creator is also behind other rugpulls.
The AlleyCat cryptocurrency project is based on the 1983 Atari game of the same name, though the crypto project does not appear to have any affiliation with (or approval from) the game's creators.
- "AlleyCat - The Gambling Deployer!", Rug Pull Finder
DogWifTools rugpuller tool rug pulls the rugpullers
A suite of software tools called DogWifTools was popular among memecoin creators looking to rug pull unsuspecting traders. By helping token creators mask supply control and fake trading activity, the tool was used to convince outside traders that a token had potential — at least, up until the token creator pulled the rug out from under them.
However, poor security by the software developers allowed attackers to ship a remote access trojan (RAT) along with the DogWifTools release. Once the package was downloaded, the trojan began scanning infected devices for crypto private keys, login information, and other sensitive data. Attackers even used scans of identification documents taken from their targets' computers to create Binance accounts.
Ultimately, around $10 million was stolen from would-be scammers. Along with the virus, the people who compromised DogWifTools left an angry note on infected machines: "Solana is a fucking joke and a scam from the beginning, it was designed for criminals by criminals! As a result, we have confiscated all your crypto, because you deserved it! You people who use automated tools to run these scam tokens are fucking disgusting to us. It's about time you got fucked over for once. Solana is nothing more than a shitty platform that enables scammers and rug pullers to steal from innocent users."
They also launched an onion website containing a message: "We specifically targeted scammers in the crypto market who were using tools to gain an unfair advantage over innocent, day-to-day traders. ... We believe it was morally correct to confiscate money that was not rightfully theirs." They added that they would soon be publishing the user data they stole on the scammers.
- "Poetic Justice", Rekt [archive]
Students for Trump co-founder Ryan Fournier admits to rugpulling memecoin while trying to deny rugpulling memecoin
Ryan Fournier, a co-founder of the Students for Trump organization, worked with a memecoin creator to create a $TIKTOK memecoin, which he said was intended to celebrate TikTok lifting its brief restriction on US users amid an impending ban. The token quickly increased in price amid early attention. However, when the price began to drop, Fournier dumped 505 million TIKTOK for around $700,000 in SOL.
Fournier posted on Twitter, claiming he was scammed by his collaborator. When accused of rugging the token, Fournier replied "I'm very new to crypto and I promise you I didn’t rug it." "Buddy, we see your wallet. It’s all on-chain," replied another person. Fournier, apparently not knowing he was describing a rug pull, wrote: "I literally sold because it was going down increasingly. I don’t know who wouldn’t do that."
Two NFT fraudsters charged for rug pulls amounting to over $22 million
Gabriel Hay and Gavin Mayo, two LA-based NFT creators, have been charged for defrauding investors of more than $22.4 million through a series of NFT rug pulls and other crypto scams. The duo launched various projects with detailed and false roadmaps to lure NFT buyers, then abandoned the projects without following through.
For example, a "Vault of Gems" NFT project falsely claimed to be the "first NFT pegged to a hard asset, like jewelry", which would have its own exchange. A "Faceless" NFT project promised to produce comic books, a movie, and a clothing company. None of the promises ever materialized, and Hay and Mayo abandoned the projects soon after launching them.
Hay and Mayo worked to hide their involvement with their scams, and have been charged with harassment for attempting to threaten those who connected them. In one case, after a person revealed Hay and Mayo to be the ones behind the Faceless NFT project, the duo sent threatening emails and text messages to the man and his parents. In an email to his parents, they impersonated a law firm, and even threatened to make false sexual abuse claims against the man.
- Indictment of Gabriel Hay and Gavin Mayo [archive]
13-year-old rug pulls crypto token, then faces retaliation
A 13-year-old known as the "Gen Z Quant kid," created a token called QUANT and executed a rug pull, making $30,000. In retaliation, various people in the cryptocurrency world executed a "revenge pump" — pumping up the price of the token after the kid cashed out, causing him to miss out on potential gains. Worse, they then found the child's identity, and published his address and the school he attended. They also identified his mother, and began leaving hateful comments on her Instagram account. Rumors also emerged that a member of the cryptocurrency community dognapped the child's dog, then launched a memecoin based on the animal.
Sharpei memecoin rug pulls for $3.4 million
A dog-themed memecoin project called Sharpei abruptly cashed out $3.4 million, tanking the token price by more than 96% in seconds. The project had been promoted by crypto influencers, but hit a snag when a pitch deck for the project leaked. The deck contained multiple lies, including claims to have hired multiple "KOLs" who later denied involvement, and false claims of partnerships with various platforms and projects.
As the token price stuttered along with these revelations, insiders apparently decided to quit while they were ahead, and cashed out in a quick and coordinated sale.