- ArbiSwap developers minted a trillion ARBI tokens and swapped them for USDC and ETH.
- ARBI is down 100%.
- The rogue developers moved the stolen funds through the Etheruem-based mixer Tornado Cash.
ArbiSwap, one of the first decentralized exchanges built on Ethereum Layer-2 Arbitrum, has seemingly rug-pulled its users.
On Thursday, the developers behind ArbiSwap minted a trillion new ARBI tokens and swapped them for USDC and then for ETH. ARBI plummeted from $1.5 to a fraction of a cent in seconds.
The rogue developers could do so because they control ArbiSwap’s liquidity pools. Some industry observers believe that ArbiSwap is hardrugging, meaning they’re draining every pool available on the exchange.
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So far, the developers have been able to steal around 69 ether (ETH) ($113,160). They have moved 84 ETH in total through Tornado Cash, an Ethereum-based mixer that’s been blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury.
ArbiSwap launched in February and quickly grew to $5.02 million in total value locked (TVL), according to data from DefiLlama. The decentralized exchange offered low transaction fees enabled by Arbitrum’s Layer-2 design and attracted users by promising to give all protocol revenue back to ARBI holders.
On the Flipside
- While it’s always sad to see users’ funds being stolen, the total amount stolen from ArbiSwap users is small compared to other scams.
Why You Should Care
The crypto industry is still full of scammers and grifters. Users should always do extensive research before choosing which platform to use, especially if the platforms they like are new and have yet to be battle-tested.
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Learn more about recent crypto scams and hacks:
MyAlgo Advises Users to Withdraw Funds After $9.2M Hack
Oasis ‘Counter Exploits’ Wormhole Hacker to Retrieve $225M on Court Order
