Rug Pulls Were Rampant In August But Slightly Decreased On Previous Months – Report

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Jaroslaw Adamowski

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Jaroslaw Adamowski

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June 26, 2023 06:55 EDT

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Rug pulls, a type of theft which occurs when owners of a crypto project flee with the funds collected from their investors, dominated Web3 world-based scams and exploits in August, with 33 out of the 44 recorded exploits deemed rug pulls and exit scams, according to a recent report released by blockchain security company CertiK.

At the same time, the popularity of such scams was lower last month than in July 2022, with a 25.9% month-on-month drop, as shown by data collected by the firm. In total, rug pulls and exit scams generated an aggregate loss of more than USD 10m in August 2022, CertiK said.

Of the 33 exit scams that were detected last month, 19 “were considered as a major exploit with profits over $100k which is a 5% increase from last month,” according to the company’s report. “The largest exit scam was the Day of Rights $AMO token. Wallets associated with the project sold off large portions of the token which was sent to a wallet where the funds were aggregated. In total, ~$2m was taken from investors.”

CertiK recognizes that there was one outlier in the collected rug pull statistics for July that skewed the data. 

“Raccoon Network pulled off an IDO/fund raising exit scam which cost investors $32.7m, making it the most profitable exit scam this year as well as the 3rd highest attack over the past 12 months. If we subtract that from last month’s figures we get the figure of $13,533,928 which is $3,493,304 difference between July and August,” the report said. 

This said, by discounting the Raccoon Network and Freedom Protocol exit scam, CertiK says its analysts observe “no significant divergence in trends between July and August.”