NFT rugpulls recently tractioned substantial crypto community attention when bluechip projects and founders began to make the list of scams. Simplistically, a rugpull happens when a crypto project is launched with an elaborate long-term roadmap, but the founders abandon it with the members’ funds post the primary sale.
Until now rugpulls were only limited to core NFT projects like Azuki founders — CryptoPhunks, Tendies, and Cryptozunks. However, the latest update saw the rugpull frenzy shift toward the trending move-to-earn (M2E) arena. According to the blockchain security firm Peck Shield Alert’s tweet, the M2E project SuperStepO was rugged after $SGMT dropped more than 90%.
Following this, it’s not the first time that SuperStep got accused of being a scam. Earlier this month, Crypto Twitter witnessed a streak of tweets from the M2E project’s users, claiming that they were able to stake $SGMT but could not withdraw the same.
As M2E NFT rugpulls become more prominent, other projects such as StepUp and Sport also came under scrutiny. According to web3 security firm, KnownsecLabTeam, last month the Move To Earn application StepUp Games was rug pulled when the Token price dropped by 84%, and the deployer minted a large amount of STP and sold it.
Additionally, the same happened with the ecological Move to Earn app Sport on BNB Chain as the SPORT Token fell by over 94%.
Bluechip To NFT Rugpulls
It is not a new phenomenon for bluechip NFTs to turn the rugpull’s eye. Earlier this year, the ex-blue-chip NFT project, Azuki witnessed mass-market rejection after the project’s founder, Zagabond unveiled his involvement with NFT ‘rug pulls’ in the past. While Zagabond claimed that Azuki is better as he learned after three failed projects — CryptoPhunks, Tendies, and Cryptozunks, the community perceived it as a betrayal.
Subsequently, Azuki’s floor price dropped from roughly 19 ETH ($41,800) to 8.8 ETH ($16,685) within 24 hours. Furthermore, Azuki’s child collection – Beanz NFT was also caught in the fire and fell from a floor price above 7 ETH to 0.94 ETH at the time of reporting.