ETHTrustFund, a project on the Base network, has been involved in a rug pull that has resulted in investors losing $2 million worth of Ethereum. The fraudulent scheme was exposed by Octoshi, a prominent member of the crypto community, who noticed suspicious transfers of funds and the sudden inactivity of the project. The developer of ETHTrustFund, known as “Peng,” had been unresponsive for the past three months after raising over $2 million for the project’s treasury. The project’s website is now offline, and its social media accounts have been deleted.
ETHTrustFund marketed itself as an OHM fork and took advantage of the growing interest in the Base network. By leveraging memes, ETFs, and the excitement surrounding the network, it attracted substantial investment. However, all traces of the project have now vanished, except for its documentation.
A blockchain security firm, PeckShield, confirmed the rug pull and revealed that the scammers had already laundered the stolen funds. They bridged the funds from the Base network to Ethereum and used privacy tools like Tornado Cash and Railgun to obscure the trail of the stolen assets. Etherscan data confirms that the developer siphoned 607 ETH, equivalent to $2.1 million.
Base has seen a number of rug pulls recently, as opportunistic individuals take advantage of the FOMO surrounding the network. Last August, Magnet Finance on Base was rug-pulled for $6.4 million. Solana has also experienced rug pulls, including ones involving the URF and CONDOM meme coins, both of which occurred in April.