Rug pull is a common kind of crypto scam where developers or individuals intentionally manipulate the price of a token or coin to deceive investors and make sudden profits at their expense.
OneCoin is considered one of the biggest crypto Ponzi schemes in history, swindled investors out of billions of dollars by promising investors returns on their crypto investment
It was founded by Ruja Ignatova in Bulgaria, the scheme raised a total of $4 billion before its collapse, she tricked its investors by claiming that OneCoin would be the Bitcoin killer
Ignatova disappeared in October 2017 leaving no traces and is wanted by the US authorities for fraud and conspiracy, she has made history as the only woman currently on the FBI’s most-wanted list and one of just 11 women to ever appear on it If apprehended and convicted, she faces up to 20 years in prison.
After Ruja Ignatova's disappearance, her brother Konstantin Ignatov took the reins but was arrested in 2019, and later pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering.
Thodex which was a Turkish crypto exchange was founded in 2017 and vanished in April 2021 with investor’s funds worth over $2 billion, the founder Frauk Fatih Özer claimed it was a cyberattack and then disappeared
In 2021 Turkey investigated him for fraud arrested his employees and seized their assets, Interpol also issued a global arrest warrant.
In Sept. 2022, Faruk Fatih Özer, the founder of Thodex, was finally arrested in Vlorë, Albania. Notably, chain analysis (a blockchain analysis firm) revealed that Thodex was responsible for a staggering 90% of all rug pull losses in 2021, making it the largest fraudulent exchange of that year.
The AnubisDAO project which is a dog coin project raised $60 million in $ETH by promising its investors $ANKH tokens in return. However, the funds were immediately transferred to a different address and vanished within 24 hours, leaving the token worthless due to zero liquidity
Despite claiming to be a fork of OlympusDAO, the project lacked a website, whitepaper, and transparency with anonymous devs, they only operate through Discord and Twitter
In an interview with CNBC, an investor who lost $470,000 in AnubisDAO sc*m, said he was attracted to the project due to its dog-theme logo similar to popular meme coins like $SHIBA and $DOGE.
SQUID GAME $SQUID TOKEN
The Squid Game (SQUID) Web3 project, launched on Binance Smart Chain in 2021, is considered one of the most notorious crypto rug pulls.
Despite garnering widespread media attention, the project turned out to be a sc*m, exploiting the popularity of the Netflix series. Developers made off with $3.3 million in investor funds, leaving users with significant losses.
This incident highlights the prevalence of fraud in the crypto space, with Solidus Labs reporting that 12% of BNB Chain tokens are sc*ms, a Twitch streamer witnessed the Squid Game coin's market capitalization dumped from $2.2 trillion to near zero instantly.
MUTANT APE PLANET (MAP) NFTs
The Mutant Ape Planet (MAP) NFTs collection was created by a 24-year-old French Citizen Aurelien Michel who lives in UAE, he made away with $2.9 million of investor's funds
He created the Mutant Ape Planet collection, a knockoff of Mutant Ape Yacht Club, and promised buyers benefits like rewards and exclusive access, He was arrested at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York
.@zachxbt also highlighted that Michel happens to be the co-founder of another $1.6M rug pull, Crazy Camel Club.
