Right as the weekend was about to start, crypto Twitter sounded the alarm on a possible rugpull scam on Aptos.
A relatively new blockchain environment touted as a “Solana-killer,” Aptos is a Layer-1, PoS blockchain built by two former devs from the Diem Group, Mo Shaikh and Avery Chang. The pair reportedly worked on developing Libra/Diem, Meta’s now-defunct stablecoin project.
Although Diem was halted due to regulatory pressure – who worried that allowing Meta to create its own currency could cause monopoly issues – the two devs allegedly saw potential in the tech they’d worked on and opted to continue the project by themselves, ultimately creating Aptos.
$12 Million Originally Thought to Be Drained
In a Twitter post by D3gens.apt, a fan page for the Aptos community, the alarm was sounded about a potential drain of 1.5 million APT tokens by AptosChimps, another NFT project looking to capitalize on both the popularity of Bored Apes and the hype factor of a new blockchain.
.@AptosChimps just rugged 1.5 million $APT 🚨
This was a $12,600,000 wallet drain scam. Please be careful with stealth launches and free mints on the new chain <3
Be careful and only interact with trustworthy and reliable projects. Doxxed founders and trusted groups.
— D3gens.apt (@D3gens) October 28, 2022
The project allegedly promises free mints, with only the gas fees necessary for the mint to be paid. However, D3gens reported that the wallet connected to the…
