RiskOnBlast, a gambling platform on Blast, has disappeared with over $1.25m of investors’ funds, triggering the first rug pull on the layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum.
RiskOnBlast, a gambling platform built on the Blast layer-2 ecosystem, has been linked with the first-ever rug pull on Blast after its funds, website, and social media presence vanished.
A rug pull is a type of exit scam where the developers of a project run away with the investors’ money, leaving them with worthless tokens or coins. This usually happens after a hyped-up launch or presale, where the developers attract a lot of attention and funds from unsuspecting buyers.
According to data from Arkham Intelligence, the RiskOnBlast account balances plummeted to zero on 25 February, indicating a possible rug pull. Furthermore, Etherscan has labeled the project’s address as a phishing scam, advising users to exercise caution.
Initially, the project had raised 420 Ether, worth around $1.25m, through their presale token named RISK, with the raise starting on 22 February and lasting for one day. However, the fund movements to ChangeNOW, a noncustodial crypto exchange, have raised concerns.
On 25 February, Andrew Choi posted on X, stating, “Did @RiskOnBlast on Blast L2 really pull a rug by deleting their website, twitter, discord after raising 1M+ in presale just now?”
This news was quickly followed up by a post by blockchain investigator Amir Ormu, who stated that the RiskOnBlast team had begun laundering funds through ChangeNOW, Bybit, and MEXC.
At the time of writing, no funds are left in the last known RiskOnBlast wallet.
Blast is a layer-2 scaling solution for the Ethereum network, offering native returns to users who deposited funds. The project was announced in mid-November and has since gained a total value of $2 billion, and has been largely followed by airdrop hunters since the platform promised an airdrop in May. During this period, the platform struggled with some errors and controversies in the months following its announcement.
According to screenshots shared by users, RiskOnBlast was announced by the Blast team on February 12th. The small three-person team behind the blockchain project, whose identities have not been disclosed to the public, added a red flag.
The RiskOnBlast rug pull is the first of its kind on Blast, and it raises questions about the security and trustworthiness of the layer-2 ecosystem. It also serves as a warning to investors to do their due diligence before investing in any crypto project, especially those that are new and unverified.
