Blockchain investigator ZachXBT reported that the Solana (SOL) buying and selling platform Aqua allegedly performed a rug pull, draining 21.77k SOL value $4.65 million after securing endorsements from main ecosystem companions and not too long ago passing safety audits.
Aqua positioned itself as a buying and selling infrastructure designed to democratize entry past “insiders or whales,” claiming to have processed over $90 million in quantity with execution speeds reaching milliseconds.
The platform promised income sharing by means of its AQUA token, which might distribute buying and selling charges to holders through buy-and-burn mechanisms and staking rewards.
Aqua carried out a public sale of their token, sharing an handle the place buyers might ship up SOL and obtain AQUA tokens after launch. In line with an announcement, the protocol raised $1 million in half-hour.
A number of endorsement
The mission gained credibility by means of partnerships with established Solana entities, together with Meteora, Helius, SYMMIO, and Dialect, in addition to promotion from numerous influencers.
QuillAudits offered extra legitimacy on Aug. 31, congratulating the Aqua crew for reaching a “99.7% rating” of their safety evaluation and praising their dedication to safety.
ZachXBT’s investigation revealed that funds had been “break up 4 methods and transferred between middleman addresses earlier than being despatched to a number of immediate exchanges” simply hours earlier than his report was submitted.
The crew disabled replies on all X posts following the alleged exit.
Ethos Community CEO Serpin Taxt confirmed the mission’s dissolution, stating Aqua had briefly contacted his crew about potential collaboration earlier than disappearing. He added that Aqua’s crew deleted the messages despatched by means of Telegram.
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‘Liquidity ladder’
The platform launched its token by means of what it referred to as a “Liquidity Ladder” mannequin, marketed as a substitute for conventional presales that will guarantee “deep launch liquidity” and “truthful worth discovery.”
This mechanism was designed to reward early conviction whereas avoiding insider allocations that usually profit institutional buyers.
Following the alleged rug pull, Aqua printed a brand new sensible contract handle and claimed their Medium account was “unexpectedly suspended,” stopping them from publishing an in depth clarification.
The crew promised to share info by means of different channels however offered no updates as of press time.
Meteora co-lead Soju addressed the accusations that the protocol helped a rip-off mission to achieve traction.
Soju said:
“Our prerogative can be to assist groups utilizing our tech, typically that ends in an excellent launch, typically it doesn’t. I personally have put in processes that closely weight this in our favor. Nonetheless, I acknowledge that we might have managed expectations higher and would additional tighten inside processes to scale back this from taking place.”
Regardless of the suspicious transactions of the cash from their presale handle, there is no such thing as a formal affirmation as of press time that Aqua carried out a rug pull.
