Traps in the Crypto Assets World: The Evolution and Impact of Rug Pull Eyewash

During the boom period of the Crypto Assets market, many investors gained huge returns from certain projects, but many others suffered heavy losses due to project teams absconding with funds. Recently, the price of Aura (AURA) surged 800% in just a few hours, triggering warnings from industry experts about the potential existence of organized eyewash. This type of fraud, known as "Rug Pull", is sweeping across the entire field of Crypto Assets in an industrialized manner.

The Scale and Impact of Rug Pulls

According to an analysis by a certain data platform, a total of 304,000 tokens on the four major public chains have experienced varying degrees of Rug Pull, with hundreds of "trap coins" appearing on average every day. On the Ethereum network, there are approximately 266,000 unique addresses dedicated to creating and promoting fraudulent tokens.

These fraudsters exploit simple coin issuance tools and a large user base to carefully design eyewash. Although the average profit of a single scam project on Ethereum is about $1.65 million, the total illegal income has reached an astonishing $502 billion due to the sheer number.

Other public chains like Polygon and Linea have not been spared either. Polygon recorded 530 Rug Pull incidents, with a total profit of $10,140, involving 7,680 tokens and 4,640 fraudulent deployers. The emerging Linea chain has less data, but 4 contracts have already been completely drained of liquidity.

It is estimated that over 7.05 million investors have become direct victims of Rug Pull eyewash, resulting in the loss of millions of individuals' and families' wealth.

Types and Characteristics of Rug Pulls

Hard Rug Pull

This is a thorough act of plundering, where scammers directly siphon off all the liquidity from a project by pre-setting malicious code or exploiting vulnerabilities. Some addresses are active on multiple public chains, committing crimes by leveraging the characteristics of different chains to evade tracking.

Many scam addresses exhibit characteristics of high-frequency crime. For example, an address on a certain public chain is associated with 45 Rug Pull coins and 37 drained liquidity pools. These addresses are like locusts, quickly deploying coins, draining funds, and then disappearing or changing identities to commit fraud again.

Most hard Rug Pull tokens have a very short lifecycle, with some lasting only a few days. This aligns with the eyewash model like "Pixiu Pan", where the token completes the scam in a short time after going live, leaving investors with no time to react.

Soft Rug Pull

Compared to the violent methods of hard Rug Pulls, soft Rug Pulls are more covert. They typically only withdraw about 50% of the liquidity, creating the illusion of a "slow decline" or "temporary adjustments by the project team." Scammers may fabricate various excuses, such as "contract migration" or "system upgrade," causing some investors to hold on in hopes of recovery, ultimately suffering significant losses during the continued decline.

The Development Trend of Rug Pulls

Data shows that 2023 is a peak period for the deployment of Rug Pull tokens on Ethereum, reaching 125,759, accounting for 42.3% of the total over five years. However, the deployment volume significantly decreased to 69,154 in 2024. Fraudulent activities exhibit a clear cyclicality, with an average annual deployment volume of 48,721 for the four major public chains from 2021 to 2023. Notably, the average lifespan of fraudulent contracts has shortened from 356 days in 2021 to only 3.8 days in 2025.

Precautionary Measures

In the face of such a huge scale of eyewash, investors need to stay vigilant and understand the common tactics of Rug Pulls, such as promises of high returns, anonymous teams, lack of audits, suspicious liquidity lock-ups, and excessive social media hype. Before investing, one should carefully check key information such as whether the contract is open source, whether it has been audited by reputable institutions, whether the team's background is verifiable, and the status of liquidity lock-ups.

Conclusion

Rug Pull has developed into a mature black industry chain, characterized by low costs and high returns. This is not just an issue of individual investment losses, but a systemic challenge to the trust foundation of the entire blockchain and Crypto Assets industry. Exposing the truth about Rug Pull is not only to remind investors to be aware of the risks, but also to promote the establishment of a more comprehensive regulatory system for the entire industry.