NFT developers rugpull for a third time, this time with "Big Daddy Ape Club"
The creators of "Big Daddy Ape Club" rug pulled shortly after mint, deleting their social media and website and making off with around $1.2 million. The project's creators were reportedly the same as those who'd pulled off the $2 million "Baller Ape Club" rug pull in October 2021, and a $150,000 one before that.
Celebrity-promoted Rich Dwarves Tribe NFT project rug pulls for around $3 million
The Rich Dwarves Tribe was an NFT project announced in December 2021, which minted in January 2022. The project had been heavily promoted by musicians including NeYo, Jason Derulo, BowWow, and Fred Durst. It promised a metaverse "tavern", giveaways, a crypto project incubator, and NFTs that would "mine coins for you". However, shortly after the project minted out, its creators disappeared with the funds and abandoned the project.
Developers of the Frosties NFT project make off with about $1.1 million
An hour after releasing their ice cream-themed NFTs, developers of the Frosties NFT project closed their social media accounts and disappeared with $1.1 million, plunging the token value to nearly zero.
Doodled Dragons takes at least $30,000 after tweeting "our charity will instead now be... my bank account"
A SolSea-verified NFT project on the Solana blockchain, Doodled Dragons, touted that they would distribute all profits "straight to charities protecting animals on the brink of extinction". They announced on Twitter that they would be donating $30,000, "our first donation", to the World Wildlife Fund. Two hours later, they tweeted, "actually. fuck that. our charity will instead now be... my bank account. cya nerds." They deleted the Twitter account shortly after.
Franklin apologizes for shilling an NFT project (that later rug pulled) without adequately disclosing he was being paid
NFT collector and influencer Franklin posted a tweet thread about how he had hyped a project that later rugpulled. He was paid about 18 ETH (about $63,000) to promote the "Expansion Phunks", but did very little to acknowledge that he was being paid to promote the project. He also wrote, "I didn't do any research of Fly nor try to dox the anon team+devs and for that I'm very sorry and regret not researching." Elsewhere in the thread he mentions that "I'd say 99% of projects that I promote fail", a statement which might prompt some self-reflection if he was as ashamed of fleecing his followers as he claims to be.
ArbixFinance appears to rug pull, making off with at least $10 million
Yield farming platform ArbixFinance was drained of at least $10 million, with some reporting amounts up to $32 million. Some optimistic users hoped it was a glitch, but the fact that the formerly-active @ArbixFinance Twitter account disappeared along with their website as the funds were being drained points to a rugpull. The platform had previously been audited and approved by CertiK in November, lending the project credibility in the eyes of prospective users.
Blockchain game CryptoBike apparently rugpulls only days after launch
A Vietnamese play-to-earn game called CryptoBike became popular shortly after its December 25 launch, soaring to around $41.6 million in daily trading volume. However, on January 1, the CryptoBike token CB suddenly plunged in value from $0.81 to $0.019 as 6 million CB were sold, apparently by the project's development team. The team also reportedly blocked people from commenting on the incident in the project's Telegram channel, and took down the project's website.
- "CryptoBike showing signs of scam", Sài Gòn Giải Phóng
- "Dự án game NFT Việt bị nhà đầu tư 'săn lùng' ra cả địa chỉ giả do dùng chiêu cho chiếm đoạt 1,4 tỷ USD rồi bỏ trốn", Diễn đàn Doanh nghiệp
$YEAR creator rings in the New Year by rugpulling about $225,000
A token called $YEAR invited people to connect their crypto wallets and see a "year in review"-style summary of their 2021 crypto and NFT transactions, with an airdropped token reward based on their activity level. Some community members audited the contract to look for signs of a scam, but missed a few lines of code that enabled the creator to prevent people from selling the token. With people only able to buy the token (on secondary exchanges) but not sell, the price rose, encouraging others to buy in. Only 30 minutes after locking people out of selling, the creator drained the liquidity pool of 59.7 ETH (about $225,000), dropping the coin's value to 0.
- "Airdrop culture could pose integral threat to DeFi industry", Cointelegraph
- "Ethereum Project Airdrops Scam Token, Then Pulls the Rug", Crypto Briefing
Traders duped out of $1.8 million in a fake MetaMask governance token scheme
Scammers took advantage of rumors that MetaMask, a popular Ethereum wallet, would be airdropping governance tokens. The scammers created a fake MetaMask token, $MASK, and managed to inject code into the popular DEXTools trading app to show the token as verified. The token reached over $9 million in traded volume before scammers pulled the liquidity, making off with about $1.8 million worth of Ethereum.
- "Fake MetaMask Governance Token Soars 2600% and Gets Rug-Pulled", CryptoPotato
- "$1.8M Lost to Fake MetaMask Token Honeypot Scam", Crypto Briefing
MetaSwap Gas project rugpulls about $600,000
1,100 BNB, or around $600,000, were transferred out of the MetaSwap token MGAS, dropping the price of the token nearly 50%. The funds went to a Tornado Cash account, a popular cryptocurrency tumbler. After the transfer, MetaSwap Gas social media accounts were deactivated.