Over $600K Vanishes From DeFi Project Blur Finance; Developers Disappear

The project's Twitter feed and Discord channel have been deleted.

AccessTimeIconAug 10, 2022 at 9:39 a.m. UTC
Updated May 11, 2023 at 5:24 p.m. UTC
10 Years of Decentralizing the Future
May 29-31, 2024 - Austin, TexasThe biggest and most established global hub for everything crypto, blockchain and Web3.Register Now

Another day, another apparent rug pull.

The developers behind Blur Finance, a yield aggregator intended to leverage different decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols and strategies to maximize user profits, appear to have suddenly abandoned the project and deleted its social media channels.

More than $600,000 worth of tokens vanished in the process, security firm PeckShield said on Wednesday. Blur ran on the BNB Chain and Polygon networks.

The protocol's website is returning an invalid certificate, and a link to its Discord channel results in an "invite invalid" message.

The move is a textbook rug pull, a scam carried out by developers who launch a working decentralized finance application and carry out social media marketing to popularize it before issuing a token and listing it on a decentralized exchange (DEX). After investors have purchased the tokens in the hopes of a positive return, the developers shut up shop and disappear.

The liquidity that investors provide can run into millions of dollars. Last week investors in Polygon-based Web3 game Dragoma appear to have been subject to a rug pull valued at $3.5 million. A Chainalysis report previously estimated that rug pulls totaled some $2.8 billion in 2021 alone.

Blur had over 754 holders on BNB Chain, trackers show. The project recently integrated with Polygon and provided annualized yields of some 4,000% as of last week. The contract was created July 7.

The project’s BLR token fell 99% following the rug pull, trading at $.00064 at writing time. The price peaked at 6 cents last week.

Disclosure

Please note that our privacy policy, terms of use, cookies, and do not sell my personal information has been updated.

CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. In November 2023, CoinDesk was acquired by the Bullish group, owner of Bullish, a regulated, digital assets exchange. The Bullish group is majority-owned by Block.one; both companies have interests in a variety of blockchain and digital asset businesses and significant holdings of digital assets, including bitcoin. CoinDesk operates as an independent subsidiary with an editorial committee to protect journalistic independence. CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive options in the Bullish group as part of their compensation.

Shaurya Malwa

Shaurya is the Deputy Managing Editor for the Data & Tokens team, focusing on decentralized finance, markets, on-chain data, and governance across all major and minor blockchains.


Learn more about Consensus 2024, CoinDesk's longest-running and most influential event that brings together all sides of crypto, blockchain and Web3. Head to consensus.coindesk.com to register and buy your pass now.


Read more about