RiskOnBlast Alleged of First Rug Pull on Blast Ecosystem, Funds and Digital Presence Vanish
Summary:
RiskOnBlast, a gambling platform on the Blast layer-2 ecosystem, is believed to be the first rug pull on the Blast, with its funds, website and social media presence vanishing. The GambleFi project had raised 420 ETH ($1.25 million) for their token, RISK, but has since moved the funds to a non-custodial crypto exchange, ChangeNOW. Investigations are underway as the RiskOnBlast team is suspected to have laundered a large portion of the stolen funds. Some victims have reported significant financial losses due to the incident.
RiskOnBlast, a gambling platform operating on the Blast layer-2 ecosystem, is said to be the first rug pull occurrence on the Blast platform. The allegation comes after the project's funds, website and online footprint vanished without a trace. The observation was made by Arkham Intelligence who also noted that the balances of RiskOnBlast dwindled to nothing on February 25, which seemed to be due to the funds being drained.
The project named GambleFi had accumulated 420 ETH (equivalent to $1.25 million) in a presale for a token known as RISK from February 22 to 23. It appears that the team has since transferred the funds in installments of DAI to ChangeNOW, a noncustodial cryptocurrency exchange.
Etherscan has subsequently labelled the project's address as a possible phishing scam, and called for caution when dealing with it. Coinbase's technical head, Andrew Choi, mirrored this sentiment in a public warning about the project's disappearance from both its website and social media platforms on February 25.
Blockchain investigator Amir Ormu mentioned on February 25 that the RiskOnBlast team had laundered $850,000 from the stolen funds through ChangeNOW, in an attempt to hide their transaction traces. The funds were also sent to the MEXC and Bybit exchanges.
The crypto community has since joined forces to recover the lost funds following the purported rug pull. Among the victims who experienced significant loss, an NFT investor by the handle, 'MoonCat2878' donated 1 ETH to blockchain detector ZachXBT, famed for hunting down and recovering stolen crypto. Another victim reported a loss of $10,000.
RiskOnBlast was first introduced by the Blast team on February 12, but suspicions were raised by the small, anonymous team behind the project. A request for comment by Cointelegraph to Blast went unanswered.
The Blast protocol, a scale-up solution for the Ethereum network, offers natural yields to users who choose to stake their funds. Although the platform, first launched in October, has collected $2 billion in total value (mainly from airdrop hunters with the promise of an airdrop in May), it has been encased in controversy and teething issues since its inception.
Published At
2/26/2024 7:55:20 AM
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