As of July 2021, reports say that around $113 million USD has been scammed from rug pulls alone.So what exactly is a rug pull? A rug pull is when a project markets themselves as the next big thing and attracts investors to support it. Once enough money is earned, the creators and developers completely abandon the entire project and disappear with the money. Rug pulls can come in many different forms, but the most popular cases are cryptocurrencies and NFT scams.
Our tools, Unleash NFTs, Crunch da Vinci, Liquify, and Scour, each have their own uses to help you lower your chances of being scammed when buying NFTs, and can even be used together so that you can surround yourself with a bullet-proof ecosystem. This ultimately makes the NFT market more transparent and safe, and gives enthusiasts all the data they need to make an informed decision.
Many individuals take advantage of people looking for quick profits and scam them of their money, and the crypto industry is no exception. With the explosion of crypto and NFT news, it’s no secret that people are trying to get a piece of the action and earn fast money before doing their due-diligence.
Over the past few months, NFT rug pulls have been a popular way of scamming people out of their money, as many scammers have seen immense success doing this. Some of the most recent and most talked about NFT rug pulls are Evolved Apes and Baller Ape Club.
Riding on the coattails of the popular NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club, these two ape-themed NFTs made off with a total of roughly $4.7 million worth of ETH and SOL, with Evolved Apes disappearing with $2.7 million of that.
It is important to note that both Evolved Apes and Baller Ape Club started off like any normal project — with a team, community, and investors. Although people who fell victim to these scams admit they noticed red flags throughout the project, they claimed they were blinded by the potential they saw and ignored them.
Evolved Apes creator “Evil Ape” not only duped the community supporting him, but even the artist behind the entire collection. Evil Ape erased his tracks after the official public mint by deleting all the Evolved Apes social media platforms, and leaving behind the unerasable blockchain history of the 798 ETH transferred to him.
On the other hand, victims of the Baller Ape Club collection did not even receive a NFT. Instead, the creators of Baller Ape Club gave the thousands of anxious buyers a fake link that told them their transaction failed after they tried to mint their NFTs. However, their transactions went through every time, and users were unknowingly sending their SOL to the creators for nothing. The creators quickly pulled the plug and deleted all their tracks, just like Evil Ape did.
Although there is no definite way to not get scammed, there are ways to take precautions that help lower your chances. The underlying message for all these tips is to *do your own research* (DYOR)
Look, we get that you want to buy the next Cyberpunk or Bored Ape Yacht Club, but the chances of that are incredibly low. It is important to know that just because a NFT collection does not have a reputable team or high engagement, they can still be promising! There are no ways to confirm whether or not a collection is a scam, so the only thing that you can trust is your own judgement. Don’t be consumed by the thoughts of profit and think about things from an outside perspective. Remember to follow these simple rules the next time you consider investing in a NFT so you lower your risk of being scammed!
bitsCrunch is the Guardian of the NFT ecosystem. We are one of the top 4 AI companies in Munich, Germany that excels in Blockchain technology. We believe that blending a proven technology like Artificial Intelligence with Blockchain technology can do wonders and make the ecosystem much more safer and reliable ! Our mission is to create impactful insights from intricate data sources, by harnessing predictive analytical systems which are empowering organizations with actionable intelligence.
NFT Information Center (Unleash NFTs), A real-time NFT analytics dashboard and portfolio tracker.
AI-Enhanced Safety Feature (SCOUR), An AI agent that acts as a watchdog to flag spoofing transactions that manipulates both volume and price of the assets in the NFT ecosystem.
Fair Price value estimation for an Asset(Liquify), A fair value estimation & analytics for Digital Assets (NFTs) using AI to empower the community to embrace and value their assets in real-time.
Digital Asset Forgery Detection System (Crunch Davinci), An AI model that flags forgeries, copycats and bootleg digital art contents thereby protecting the artists and their creations.