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A popular blockchain security firm, PeckShield, recently issued an alert tweet saying that Metaland DAO had suffered a rug pull on Friday, January 7th. The project seems to be one of the most recent scams in the crypto community.
A Rug Pull
According to PeckShield, Metaland DAO had an incurring loss of over 640 BNB, which is about $286,748. Furthermore, its native token, META, remarkably dropped by 80.91%. The META token price dramatically went down within ten minutes, leaving users stunned.
#Slippage $META (https://t.co/OPG1rqL1iC) price dropped -80.91% (#BSC) pic.twitter.com/2xZd2kdUtL
— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) January 7, 2022
To worsen the situation, the official Metaland Twitter page seems deactivated, and all previous activities are erased. From all indications, the project seems to have been a scam project. However, the project which recently went live was to be a promising platform.
The Metaland DAO Project
The Metaland DAO is (was) “a virtual world where players can build, own, and monetize their gaming experiences in the BSC blockchain using META,” according to its Medium blog. The project’s team was to create a virtual space for various players to collaborate and build games without any central authority.
Metaland DAO said it was out to dominate the blockchain space. Furthermore, It listed other projects like Minecraft and Roblox as possible competitors. The project said it hoped to lead the metaverse by granting users full ownership of their work alongside rewards in the META token.
Rug Pulls in DeFi
Crypto rug pulls are most commonly associated with DeFi ventures, as fraudsters seek to profit from the developing DeFi market in their own style. However, rug pulls don’t account for a large portion of the money lost in DeFi crimes, but they are common.
The most notable rug pull event occurred last year, when the BSC-based Project SQUID token, motivated by the smash Netflix movie Squid Game, fell 99.99 percent when buyers realized the token did not relate to the series. On the other hand, the project’s team was swift in their crime. They made off with approximately $3.3 million from purchased tokens.
Over the years, there have been other exit scams or rug pulls, including projects like
- Luna Yield
- Unicats
- Emerald Mine
- SharkTron
- OneCoin
- Yfdexf.Finance
- Compounder.Finance
- Lv.Finance
About PeckShield
PeckShield has reported several supposed rug pulls and scam projects. Founded in 2018 by former Qihoo 360 Chief Scientist Xuxian Jiang, PeckShiled has captured attention in the crypto space.
The company’s website claims to have a team of veteran security personnel. In addition, PeckShield said it has top researchers from organizations like Qihoo 360, Microsoft, Intel, Juniper, and Alibaba. Furthermore, PeckShield previously ranked 3rd globally in the Ethereum Bounty Program.
Do Your Due Diligence
The emergence and huge boost, as seen in Defi and other crypto initiatives, have made financial services more accessible. It does, however, come with the risk of financial loss due to rug pulls or other scams. As a result, do your homework before engaging in any project.