Mar 2021 - Viking Swap Exit - $1.2m (Global)
Viking Swap is "your go-to 2nd generation yield farm on the #bsc" and offers "[y]ield farms for the warriors of Valhalla on BSC!" "Viking swap was obviously a clone of Goose Finance, which in turn seemed to have taken most of its contract code from SushiSwap." "Hacken OÜ (Consultant) was contracted by Viking DeFi (Customer) to conduct a Smart Contract Code Review and Security Analysis."
"While GooseFinance was offering a LP with Million% APY, [Viking Swap] came up with a pool offering Billion% APY. They even got it listed on AutoFarm Network. I think this was the key reason why people decide to trust VikingSwap as many assumed that being listed on AutoFarm means it must be legit."
"March 7th, It was as usual as it gets on the Viking Swap telegram feed. Viking Token price was down %90 from its mouth-watering ATH of 73$. Members were talking about the new NFT burn model that has been said to be worked on by devs."
"As usual devs were nowhere to be seen on the channel. When asked about, moderator Enzee remarked that the devs “value their privacy”. Then in a few hours suddenly the telegram channel was locked and Viking Swap’s medium feed and telegram channel both displayed the same message titled “An Ode to Warriors” that announced devs have pulled the plug."
"So is this a rug pull? Not really, as the code was solid and none of the staker funds could be moved by the developers. They just took the developer fees that they and never did what what they promised with it, buying back VIKING tokens."
"That inevitably to lead to tanking of the VIKING price because all stakers sold their VIKING tokens to realize their “gains”. When the music stopped they shut down the shop and took the developer fees with them. So I think this is an exit scam. And it clearly shows stakers don’t have the knowledge to check if the devs are doing what they promised."
"They are the %4 deposit fees taken from Viking Swap Armory stakers, which they promised will be used to buyback VIKING tokens, which they never did. This wallet now holds 320K worth of EGG tokens, along with other tokens taken from armory deposit fees adding up to 1.2mil$ at the time of writing."
"So is this a rug pull? Not really, as the code was solid and none of the staker funds could be moved by the developers. They just took the developer fees that they and never did what what they promised with it, buying back VIKING tokens."
"We understand there has been huge damage done to our community. Some community members are trying to gather together to try to salvage what is left. We cannot make any promises at this time, but our intent is to look at what is available, what the options are, and whether portions of the project can be passed over from the devs to the community managers. Whilst we do not know yet what is possible, we will endeavour to do our best for you."
Further Analysis
The anonymous Viking Swap team cloned another smart contract. They then made promises to investors that they'd buy back tokens, which they never did. There was no mechanism to hold them accountable, as they left the project with the development funds.
How Could This Have Been Prevented?
The viking swap token is most probably a security, since investors are paying money with the expectation of profit to be derived largely from the effort of a small group of people. The team is also anonymous. Both of these are not generally able to happen in a regulated centralized exchange.
More Cryptocurrency Exchange Hacks/Scams/Frauds
DODO Finance Initialization Vulnerability > > < < CoinGain Ponzi Scheme
Sources/Further Reading
What Does A DeFi Rug Pull Look Like: A Viking Swap Story | Hacker Noon (May 24)
VIking Swap Announcement (Jun 6)
Viking Swap On BSC Is Now Dead - YouTube (Jun 7)
Viking just executed a classic rug. : AutoFarmNetwork (Jun 7)
I could get just 17 USD from 100 USD invested from the VikingSwap Exit Scam / Rug Pull - YouTube (Jun 7)
What Does A DeFi Rug Pull Look Like: A Viking Swap Story - CyberFishNews (Jun 13)
Viking Swap (Jun 13)
VIking Swap Audit - Hacken (Jun 13)
VIking Swap Twitter (Jun 13)
What can we learn from Viking Swap and the VIKING token? (Jun 20)
@swap_viking Twitter (Jun 20)
Viking Swap NFTs and Lottery (Jun 20)
Binance Smart Chain or Binance Scam Chain?- Here's what you need to know | ItsBlockchain (Jun 20)
VikingSwap Disaster – Why you should be careful of Degen deals! (Jun 20)
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