24 entries tagged “rug-pull”.
An NFT collection launched on OpenSea in September 2021 that promised a fighting game. About a week later its anonymous developer 'Evil Ape' vanished with 798 ETH (~$2.7M). In June 2024 U.S. prosecutors charged three U.K. nationals over the scheme.
A knockoff of the Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFTs whose creator, French national Aurelien Michel, raised ~$2.9M then 'rug-pulled' buyers, abandoning promised rewards. He was arrested at JFK in 2023, pleaded guilty to wire-fraud conspiracy, and forfeited $1.4M.
An 8,888-piece NFT collection whose two creators abruptly shut it down within hours of selling out in Jan 2022 and moved ~$1.1M to their own wallets. The U.S. DOJ charged Ethan Nguyen and Andre Llacuna with wire fraud and money laundering.
A token themed on the Netflix series 'Squid Game' that rug-pulled in November 2021. A contract mechanism prevented most buyers from selling; developers cashed out an estimated $3.38M and the token's value fell to near zero.
A Solana memecoin riding rumors of a Jordan Belfort ('Wolf of Wall Street') token. Launched March 8, 2025 with ~82% of supply bundled under one entity, it peaked near $42M and then crashed ~99% within two days. On-chain analysts (Bubblemaps) traced it to Hayden Davis, of $LIBRA/$MELANIA infamy.
French national who created the 'Mutant Ape Planet' NFT collection — a knockoff of Mutant Ape Yacht Club — and rug-pulled buyers after raising ~$2.9M. He pleaded guilty to wire-fraud conspiracy in 2023; in 2024 he was sentenced to time served plus a $15K fine and $1.4M forfeiture.
Co-creator (alias 'heyandre') of the Frosties NFT project, charged by the DOJ in March 2022 in its first NFT 'rug pull' case over the ~$1.1M scheme.
Co-creator (alias 'Frostie') of the Frosties NFT project, which the DOJ charged in March 2022 as its first NFT 'rug pull' case — abandoning the project hours after a ~$1.1M sellout and moving the funds to obfuscate their source.
A zkSync DEX (token MAGE) drained of ~$1.8M during its April 2023 token launch — concluded to be a rug pull by rogue developers via excessive 'feeTo' permissions. CertiK had audited it days earlier and later offered a victim compensation plan.
An Arbitrum DEX (token SAPR) whose deployer rug-pulled ~$3M in May 2023 by using proxy upgradeability to swap the audited staking contract for a malicious one. Funds were laundered via Tornado Cash. CertiK had audited it weeks earlier and later flagged it an 'exit scam'.
A BNB Chain Dogecoin-style memecoin/DEX. In July 2022, PeckShield said developer-controlled wallets executed a 'soft rug pull', selling ~$4.5M of TEDDY (converted to ~10,000 BNB + 2M BUSD, sent to Binance). TEDDY fell ~99%.
A Solana yield aggregator launched via the SolPAD launchpad that went dark in Aug 2021 after withdrawing liquidity — one of Solana's first major rug pulls. CoinDesk verified ~$6.7M removed; funds were reportedly bridged to Ethereum and routed through Tornado Cash.
An Avalanche OlympusDAO-style 'reserve memecoin' run as an 8-day experiment (Nov 2021). When its promised treasury-funded 'buyback' opened on a private AMM, SDOG crashed 90%+ in seconds; only ~7% of supply could sell at a profit and insiders reportedly back-ran it for ~$10M. The team called it a 'game-theory experiment'.
A Solana memecoin launched on Pump.fun in November 2024 by a teenager who 'rug-pulled' it live on stream, selling his ~51M tokens for ~128 SOL (~$30K). He repeated the move with further tokens; the community then doxxed him and ironically pumped QUANT.
A BNB Chain yield-vault protocol that lost ~$31M (≈14M BUSD and ~73,600 BNB) one day after launch in March 2021. The deployer used the proxy upgradeTo() function to swap the vault logic for malicious contracts with a permissionless 'backdoor' and drained the vaults. Widely classified as a rug pull.
A BNB Chain stableswap protocol that rug-pulled ~$27M in June 2021 by deploying a linked library different from its verified source code, letting operators drain the protocol and approved user wallets. A white-hat traced the team to Manchester, UK; arrests followed and most funds were returned.
A BNB Chain token (2021) whose leaders, per the SEC/DOJ, falsely told investors the liquidity pool was 'locked' while retaining access and misappropriating assets worth more than $200M. CEO convicted in 2025.
CEO of Kelsier Ventures and the figure on-chain analysts and reporting place at the center of a cluster of 2025 memecoin launches — $LIBRA (Argentina), $MELANIA, and $WOLF among them. Wallets tied to him netted $100M+; Argentine prosecutors sought an Interpol Red Notice. He denies wrongdoing.
A BNB Chain yield-farming project that rug-pulled about $10M in January 2022. The team minted millions of ARBX via an owner-only mint() function, dumped them, routed user deposits to unverified pools, and deleted its site and socials — months after a CertiK audit.
An Ethereum yield aggregator (a Harvest/Yearn clone) that rug-pulled ~$10.8M (some estimates ~$12.5M) in Dec 2020 by swapping audited 'Strategy' contracts for malicious ones via an unmonitored timelock. CP3R fell ~99% and the team vanished.
A memecoin on Coinbase's Base network that surged in late July 2023, then collapsed ~90% when its pseudonymous deployer removed liquidity — a rug pull. Reported liquidity removed ranged from about $23M to $25.6M.
An OlympusDAO-style project with no website or whitepaper and pseudonymous developers that raised ~13,556 ETH (~$60M) in October 2021. About 20 hours later all liquidity was withdrawn and the token fell to zero — a rug pull.
A Solana memecoin tied to viral personality Haliey Welch, launched Dec 4, 2024. Its market cap reached ~$490M before falling 95%+ within hours, prompting rug-pull/pump-and-dump allegations and a securities lawsuit against the operators (not Welch).
A Solana memecoin created by Kelsier Ventures (led by Hayden Davis). After Argentine President Javier Milei promoted it on Feb 14, 2025, its market cap briefly topped ~$4.5B before insiders sold; reporting describes a rug pull with about $251M in investor losses.
