The RiskOnBlast project, a gambling platform that operates on the Blast layer-2 ecosystem, is suspected of being the first rug pull on Blast. This suspicion arises after the disappearance of its funds, website, and social media presence. According to Arkham Intelligence, the balances of RiskOnBlast have dropped to zero as it seems that the funds were siphoned out on February 25th.
During a presale token called RISK, the GambleFi project managed to raise 420 Ether (ETH), which is equivalent to $1.25 million. The presale took place from February 22nd to the following day. However, the team has since moved funds in batches of Dai (DAI) to ChangeNOW, a noncustodial crypto exchange.
In addition, Etherscan has identified the project’s address as a phishing scam and has advised users to exercise caution when interacting with it. Coinbase tech lead Andrew Choi also issued an alert, warning that the website and social media presence of the project disappeared on February 25th.
Blockchain sleuth Amir Ormu reported on February 25th that the RiskOnBlast team had laundered $850,000 of the stolen funds using ChangeNOW as a mixer to obscure the transaction trail. Funds were also sent to the MEXC and Bybit exchanges.
Following the alleged rug pull, the crypto community has come together to help track down the funds. One victim of the rug pull, who lost $12,500, donated 1 ETH to blockchain sleuth ZachXBT, who has a track record of finding and recovering stolen crypto. Another victim has reported losses amounting to $10,000.
Screenshots shared by users indicate that the Blast team announced RiskOnBlast on February 12th. However, concerns were raised due to the small size of the team, consisting of only three individuals, whose identities were not disclosed.
Cointelegraph reached out to Blast for comment but did not receive an immediate response.
The Blast protocol is a scaling solution for the Ethereum network that offers native yields to users who stake their funds. It was announced in mid-November and has accumulated a total value of $2 billion since then. Most of these funds came from airdrop hunters as the platform promised an airdrop in May.
However, the platform has encountered some bugs and controversy since its announcement.
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