Crypto rug pulls are a type of exit scam that involves malicious developers coding hidden backdoors into their tokens, withdrawing all the coins from the liquidity pool, or quickly selling off large amounts of tokens to drive down their price and leave remaining investors holding worthless assets.
Rug pulls come in various flavors but usually involve some aspect of liquidity limiting or rapid selling where the price depreciates quickly. Just because a prominent team member announces they’re leaving the project or stepping down doesn’t mean it’s a rug. When Charlie Lee sold his LTC at the top, the project didn’t die.
Hard rug pulls are an exit scam that can be particularly devastating to investors. They involve malicious developers coding hidden backdoors into their tokens, allowing them to withdraw all the coins from the liquidity pool quickly. This allows them to take advantage of unsuspecting investors who may not be aware of the backdoor.
On the other hand, soft rug pulls are when token developers dump their crypto assets quickly. This is done to devalue the token, leaving remaining investors with a much less valuable asset than what they initially invested in.
1. Look for hidden backdoor 2. Check the liquidity pool 3. Look out for sudden price drop 4. Know when to stop investing 5 Be aware of recent scam 6. Research the project thoroughly 7. Follow trusted source 8. Use reputable exchange
Crypto rug pulls have been around since the early days of crypto. The first recorded instance of a crypto rug pull happened in 2014, when Bitcoin Savings and Trust Ponzi scheme operator Trendon Shavers was arrested for running an $80 million fraud. Since then, other examples of crypto rug pulls have occurred regularly, with some high-profile cases involving large amounts of money being stolen from unsuspecting investors.
In 2021, an estimated $7.7 billion was stolen from investors in rug-pull crypto scams. These investors thought they were putting their money into respectable enterprises, but they ended up having their investment opportunities snatched out from under them. According to the findings of Solidus Labs’ Rug Pull study from 2022, an average of 350 fraudulent crypto tokens were generated each day with the intention of defrauding millions of investors.