Famous Rug Pull Examples and Losses in Cryptocurrency
6 January 2025

Rug Pull Risk Assessment Tool

Is This Crypto Project a Rug Pull?

Assess the risk of a cryptocurrency project being a rug pull scam based on critical safety indicators. Use this tool to protect your investments before you commit funds.

Risk Assessment Results

Risk Level:
0

Based on your answers:

  • Liquidity Locked
  • Team Verification
  • Security Audit
  • Hype Level
  • Token Ownership

Based on historical rug pull cases like Thodex and Squid Game Token:

This project has a risk of being a rug pull scam.

Recommended Action

Every day, new cryptocurrency projects promise life-changing returns. A meme coin with a funny name. An NFT collection backed by a celebrity. A DeFi platform that says it’s ‘unstoppable.’ But behind the hype, thousands of investors are losing everything-not because the market crashed, but because the project was a lie from day one. This is a rug pull.

A rug pull happens when developers create a crypto project, lure in money from investors, then vanish with the funds. No warning. No explanation. Just a dead website, silenced Discord, and tokens worth nothing. Unlike market crashes, rug pulls are deliberate theft. And they’re getting bigger, smarter, and more dangerous.

Thodex: The $2 Billion Exchange Heist

In April 2021, Thodex, one of Turkey’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, suddenly shut down. Its CEO, Faruk Fatih Özer, disappeared. Users couldn’t log in. Withdrawals were frozen. Within hours, it became clear: this wasn’t a technical glitch. It was a full-scale exit scam.

Thodex wasn’t a small DeFi project. It was a centralized exchange with over 2 million users. People deposited Bitcoin, Ethereum, and dozens of altcoins, trusting it like a bank. When the site went dark, investigators traced $2 billion in crypto-mostly from user accounts-into wallets controlled by Özer and his inner circle. He fled to Albania, then Greece, and was eventually arrested in 2022.

What made Thodex different? It wasn’t a shady token launched on a weekend. It was a full-blown platform with apps, customer support, and media coverage. That’s what made it so deadly. People didn’t lose money because they were reckless-they lost it because they trusted a fake institution.

AnubisDAO: A $60 Million Overnight Vanishing Act

On October 28, 2021, a new token called ANKH launched on Ethereum. No website. No whitepaper. Just a DOGE-style logo and a promise: a decentralized currency backed by a basket of assets. Within hours, it raised nearly $60 million in wrapped Ethereum (wETH). Investors thought they were funding the next big thing.

Then, 20 hours later, the liquidity pool vanished. The developers pulled every single wETH out of the contract. The ANKH token price crashed to zero. The entire project disappeared without a trace. No social media updates. No explanations. Just silence.

AnubisDAO didn’t need a fancy website to fool people. It relied on FOMO and hype. People saw the price rising fast and jumped in, assuming others knew something they didn’t. The smart contract had no restrictions-it let the developers drain funds at will. That’s the hallmark of a rug pull: the code is designed to let the creators take everything, and no one else can stop them.

Squid Game Token: When Pop Culture Becomes a Trap

The Squid Game token wasn’t just a scam. It was a Hollywood-level production. Launched in October 2021, it copied the name and visuals of Netflix’s global hit show. The team claimed it was a play-to-earn game where players could earn tokens by completing challenges. The token price soared from $0.01 to over $2,861 in less than a week.

Investors rushed in. Some sold for massive profits. Others held, believing the game would launch. Then came the crash. The token’s price dropped 99% in a single day. The team’s LinkedIn profiles vanished. Their Telegram and Discord servers were deleted. The whitepaper was filled with impossible claims-like integrating with real-world retailers and using AI to track player progress.

Forensic analysis showed the team had sold nearly all their tokens before the crash. They walked away with over $3.38 million. The smart contract was a honeypot-it let people buy but blocked them from selling. You could hold the token, but you couldn’t cash out. That’s not a bug. That’s the whole design.

A crowned frog sits on a pile of tokens as shadowy hands pull the ground away beneath it.

Bored Bunny NFT: Fake Celebrities, Real Losses

In December 2021, Bored Bunny NFTs exploded onto the scene. The project claimed to feature rare digital art, a private metaverse, and endorsements from Floyd Mayweather, Jake Paul, and David Dobrik. It sold out in hours, raising over 2,000 ETH-worth more than $7 million at the time.

But the endorsements were fake. Blockchain investigators found that the NFTs supposedly owned by celebrities were actually bought by wallets linked to the project’s developers. The project’s team had prior ties to other shady NFT scams. The metaverse? Never built. The merchandise? Never shipped.

Today, the floor price of a Bored Bunny NFT sits at 0.085 ETH-down over 95% from its peak. People who bought in early lost most of their money. Those who bought late? They’re stuck with digital art that no one wants.

This case shows how NFT rug pulls use social proof to manipulate trust. If a celebrity is ‘involved,’ you assume it’s legit. But in crypto, anyone can fake a profile. A screenshot. A deepfake video. A stolen photo.

Froggy (FROGGY) and Hawk Tuah (HAWK): 2024’s Latest Scams

Rug pulls aren’t a thing of the past. They’re evolving.

In early 2024, FROGGY launched as a meme coin with a cartoon frog logo. It promised quick profits and community ownership. Developers flooded X (Twitter) and Reddit with memes, influencers, and fake trading volume. Within days, the token hit an all-time high of $0.00001577. Then, the liquidity was drained. FROGGY now trades at $0.0000000073964-a 99.95% drop.

Then came HAWK. In December 2024, social media personality Hailey Welch promoted her new meme coin, HAWK, on TikTok and Instagram. Within 20 minutes of launch, the market cap crashed from $500 million to $60 million. The token’s price fell 71% in hours. U.S. authorities stepped in. Burwick Law filed a federal lawsuit against Welch and three others.

HAWK’s smart contract didn’t even have a liquidity lock. The developers could pull funds anytime. And they did-immediately after the hype peaked. This wasn’t just a scam. It was a celebrity-assisted fraud. And it’s becoming more common.

How Rug Pulls Work: The Two Main Methods

Not all rug pulls look the same. There are two main ways they happen:

  • DeFi Smart Contract Scams: The code is rigged. Developers write a token contract that lets them withdraw all liquidity, mint unlimited tokens, or block sells. You can’t sell because the contract says you can’t. These are often hidden in the code and hard to spot without an audit.
  • Exit Scams: No code trickery. Just pure deception. Developers promote a project hard-fake partnerships, fake influencers, fake roadmaps. They build hype, collect funds, then vanish. The smart contract might be fine. But the team is gone.

The most dangerous rug pulls combine both. Squid Game had fake marketing AND a honeypot contract. Thodex was a fake exchange AND an exit scam. The more layers of deception, the harder it is to spot.

A celebrity rabbit promotes NFT bunnies while a dark tunnel labeled 'Rug Pull' opens behind them.

How to Avoid Getting Ripped Off

You can’t avoid every scam. But you can avoid the biggest ones.

  • Check the liquidity. If the liquidity pool isn’t locked for at least 6 months, walk away. If it’s 100% owned by the team, it’s a red flag.
  • Look for audits. Reputable projects get audited by firms like CertiK or Hacken. If there’s no audit, assume it’s unsafe.
  • Verify the team. Do they have real LinkedIn profiles? Have they worked on other projects? If everyone is anonymous or uses fake names, it’s a warning sign.
  • Watch the hype. If a token is trending on TikTok because a celebrity posted about it, be extra cautious. Celebrities get paid to promote scams. They don’t care if you lose money.
  • Don’t chase quick gains. If something promises 10x in a day, it’s not an investment. It’s a trap.

Most importantly: never invest more than you can afford to lose. In crypto, you’re not just risking money. You’re risking your trust in a system that’s still wild west.

Why Rug Pulls Keep Winning

Over 300,000 scam tokens have been created since 2020. Two million people have lost money. And yet, new ones keep appearing.

Why? Because the system rewards speed over safety. New investors enter the market every day. They don’t know how to read a smart contract. They don’t know how to check a team’s history. They see a trending token and jump in.

Scammers know this. They don’t need to fool everyone. They just need to fool enough. One successful rug pull can net millions. And with no real consequences for most perpetrators, the incentives are too high to stop.

Regulators are starting to act. The HAWK lawsuit is a sign. But blockchain is global. Scammers operate from countries with weak enforcement. And anonymous wallets make tracking nearly impossible.

The only real protection? Knowledge. Skepticism. And patience.

What is a rug pull in crypto?

A rug pull is a type of crypto scam where developers create a token or project, attract investors’ money, then suddenly disappear with the funds. The token becomes worthless, and investors lose everything. It’s called a ‘rug pull’ because it’s like someone yanking the rug out from under you.

How do you spot a rug pull before investing?

Look for locked liquidity, a verified team with real identities, an audit from a reputable firm like CertiK, and no promises of guaranteed returns. If the project has no website, no whitepaper, or anonymous developers, avoid it. Also, check if the liquidity pool is owned by the team-this is a major red flag.

Can you get your money back after a rug pull?

Almost never. Once the funds are moved to anonymous wallets, tracing them is extremely difficult. In rare cases like Thodex, law enforcement can arrest the perpetrators and recover some assets-but most victims recover nothing. Rug pulls are designed to be irreversible.

Are celebrity-endorsed crypto projects safe?

No. Celebrities are often paid to promote scams. They don’t verify the project. They just post a video or tweet. The Hawk Tuah case proves this-Hailey Welch promoted HAWK, then the token crashed. She faced legal action, but most investors lost everything. Never invest based on a celebrity’s post.

What’s the biggest rug pull in history?

The Thodex exchange scam in 2021 is the largest known rug pull, with over $2 billion stolen from users. It wasn’t a DeFi token-it was a full cryptocurrency exchange that pretended to be legitimate. This shows that even large, seemingly trustworthy platforms can be fronts for fraud.

Do rug pulls still happen in 2025?

Yes. In fact, they’re increasing. In 2024 alone, dozens of new rug pulls targeted meme coins and NFTs. Scammers are using AI-generated content, deepfake videos, and social media influencers to make scams look more real. The tools are getting better, and so are the scams.

What Comes Next?

There’s no magic fix for rug pulls. Until crypto becomes regulated like traditional finance, the risk will stay high. But awareness is growing. More people are learning to check audits. More tools are popping up to flag suspicious contracts.

For now, the best defense is simple: don’t get greedy. Don’t trust hype. Don’t follow influencers. If a project sounds too good to be true, it is. And if you’re not sure? Wait. Walk away. Come back tomorrow. The next opportunity won’t disappear. But your money might.

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