Solana trading bot Aqua allegedly rug pulls $4.65 million after major ecosystem endorsements

Blockchain investigator ZachXBT reported that the Solana (SOL) trading platform Aqua allegedly performed a rug pull, draining 21.77k SOL value $4.65 million after securing endorsements from major ecosystem companions and not too long ago passing safety audits.

Aqua positioned itself as a trading infrastructure designed to democratize entry past “insiders or whales,” claiming to have processed over $90 million in quantity with execution speeds reaching milliseconds.

The platform promised income sharing by way of its AQUA token, which might distribute trading charges to holders by way of buy-and-burn mechanisms and staking rewards.

Aqua carried out a public sale of their token, sharing an handle the place buyers may ship up SOL and obtain AQUA tokens after launch. According to an announcement, the protocol raised $1 million in half-hour.

Multiple endorsement

The venture gained credibility by way of partnerships with established Solana entities, together with Meteora, Helius, SYMMIO, and Dialect, in addition to promotion from varied influencers.

QuillAudits supplied additional legitimacy on Aug. 31, congratulating the Aqua staff for attaining a “99.7% rating” of their safety evaluation and praising their dedication to safety.

ZachXBT’s investigation revealed that funds have been “break up 4 methods and transferred between middleman addresses earlier than being despatched to a number of on the spot exchanges” simply hours earlier than his report was submitted.

The staff disabled replies on all X posts following the alleged exit.

Ethos Network CEO Serpin Taxt confirmed the venture’s dissolution, stating Aqua had briefly contacted his staff about potential collaboration earlier than disappearing. He added that Aqua’s staff deleted the messages despatched by way of Telegram.

‘Liquidity ladder’

The platform launched its token by way of what it known as a “Liquidity Ladder” mannequin, marketed as a substitute for conventional presales that may guarantee “deep launch liquidity” and “truthful value discovery.”

This mechanism was designed to reward early conviction whereas avoiding insider allocations that usually profit institutional buyers.

Following the alleged rug pull, Aqua printed a new smart contract address and claimed their Medium account was “unexpectedly suspended,” stopping them from publishing an in depth rationalization.

The staff promised to share data by way of different channels however supplied no updates as of press time.

Meteora co-lead Soju addressed the accusations that the protocol helped a rip-off venture to realize traction.

Soju stated:

“Our prerogative might be to assist groups utilizing our tech, generally that leads to a superb launch, generally it doesn’t. I personally have put in processes that closely weight this in our favor. However, I acknowledge that we may have managed expectations higher and would additional tighten inner processes to cut back this from occurring.”

Despite the suspicious transactions of the cash from their presale handle, there isn’t a formal affirmation as of press time that Aqua carried out a rug pull.

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