The team responsible for developing OrdiZK (OZK), a cross-chain bridging protocol, has reportedly carried out an exit scam, making off with $1.4 million worth of investors’ cryptocurrency. This information was revealed by CertiK, a blockchain security platform.
According to CertiK, on March 4, the deployer account of the protocol allegedly sold 489 million OZK tokens on a decentralized exchange, receiving $132,000 in return. This sale caused the token price to plummet by 98%. Then, on March 5, an additional $214,000 worth of OZK was sold, resulting in a further 99% drop in value.
Blockchain data confirms that on March 4, the OZK deployer executed the “execute” function on Uniswap’s Universal Router contract, swapping approximately 489 million OZK for 35.65 Ether (ETH). On March 5, an additional 121 million OZK was swapped through the execute function, transferring 0.93 ETH from Uniswap’s OZK/ETH liquidity pool to the deployer account.
Furthermore, the deployer withdrew 57.68 ETH (equivalent to approximately $197,000 at current prices) from the OZKStake contract by utilizing the “emergencyWithdraw” function. CertiK also revealed that the project held $263,000 in a “marketing wallet” and $174,000 in a “treasury wallet,” suggesting that the project possessed over $1.4 million across these three wallets before executing its alleged exit scam.
Following the scam, the project’s X account, Telegram group, and documents have all been deleted.
In related news, blockchain security firm Immunefi reported that in the first two months of 2024, crypto scammers and hackers have already defrauded victims of hundreds of millions of dollars. So far this year, these incidents have resulted in losses of over $200 million. On February 26, gambling protocol RiskOnBlast became the first rug pull on the new Blast network, absconding with $1 million of investors’ funds in the process.