RiskOnBlast suspected to be first rug pull on Blast after $1M presale

The RiskOnBlast project, a gambling platform based on the Blast layer-2 ecosystem, is suspected of being the first rug pull on Blast following the disappearance of its funds, website, and social media presence.

According to Arkham Intelligence, RiskOnBlast balances have gone to zero after the funds appeared to have been siphoned out on Feb. 25.

The GambleFi project had raised 420 ETH worth $1.25 million for a presale token called RISK which began on Feb. 22 and ended the following day. However, the team has since moved funds in batches of DAI to ChangeNOW, a noncustodial crypto exchange.

Moreover, Etherscan has flagged the project’s address as a phishing scam urging users to “exercise caution when interacting with it.”

Coinbase tech lead Andrew Choi was among those who posted an alert warning that the project’s website and social media presence had disappeared on Feb. 25.

Did @RiskOnBlast on Blast L2 really pull a rug by deleting their website, twitter, discord after raising 1M+ in presale just now? pic.twitter.com/IrhgAfLd9s

— andrewchoi.sol () (@AndrewChoi5) February 25, 2024

On Feb. 25, Blockchain sleuth Amir Ormu reported that the RiskOnBlast team had washed $850,000 of the stolen funds using ChangeNOW as a mixer to obfuscate the transaction trail. Funds were also sent to MEXC and Bybit exchanges.

RiskOnBlast team has washed $850k of the stolen funds so far using ChangeNOW.

I've found the last destination address of their operation, which they tried to hide using ChaneNOW as a mixer: https://t.co/u3ZPNARWVU

Hope this helps the other sleuths in tracking them. pic.twitter.com/rHYiZgbMja

— Amir Ormu (On-Chain Alfa ) (@AmirOrmu) February 25, 2024

The crypto community has since rallied to help track down the funds following the alleged rug pull. One of the victims of the "rug pull" who lost $12,500, NFT investor ‘MoonCat2878’, donated 1 ETH to blockchain sleuth ZachXBT who has previously worked at tracking down and recovering stolen crypto.

Another victim has also reported losses to the tune of $10,000. 

RiskOnBlast was announced by the Blast team on Feb. 12, according to screenshots shared by users. Red flags were raised by the small three-person team behind the gambling project, whose identities were not made public.

A protocol officially endorsed by Blast already rugged $1.5m ??? pic.twitter.com/TCzSklUwkb

— Prince of Prosperity | Manifesting (@DextMoon) February 25, 2024

Cointelegraph reached out to Blast for comment but did not receive an immediate response. 

Related: How scammers used FOMO and misleading code to rug 42K victims

The Blast protocol is a scaling solution for the Ethereum network providing native yields to users who stake their funds. It was announced in mid-November and has since accrued $2 billion in total value, locked largely from airdrop hunters since the platform promised an airdrop in May.

However, the platform has been plagued with some  bugs and controversy in the months following its announcement.

Magazine: OKX token’s $6.5B flash crash, crypto exec ‘Mr Bang’ on the run: Asia Express