Aqua Cryptocurrency Project Embroiled in Major Fraud Scandal: Developers Cut Off Communication and Flee with $4.65 Million

A cryptocurrency project called Aqua has committed a rugpull scam, involving approximately $4.65 million in Solana. The funds were transferred to intermediary addresses and sent to instant exchanges. The Aqua team has disabled replies on their X posts. This incident is unrelated to the Solana ecosystem, despite occurring within it.

A cryptocurrency project called Aqua has allegedly committed a rug pull scam, involving approximately $4.65 million in Solana (SOL). The funds were transferred to intermediary addresses and subsequently sent to instant exchanges. The Aqua team has disabled replies on their X posts, indicating an attempt to evade scrutiny. This incident is unrelated to the Solana ecosystem, despite occurring within it.

Blockchain investigator ZachXBT reported that Aqua, a Solana trading platform, conducted a rug pull, draining 21.77k SOL worth $4.65 million after securing endorsements from major ecosystem partners and recently passing security audits. Aqua positioned itself as a trading infrastructure designed to democratize access, claiming to have processed over $90 million in volume with execution speeds reaching milliseconds [1].

The project promised revenue sharing through its AQUA token, which would distribute trading fees to holders via buy-and-burn mechanisms and staking rewards. Aqua performed a public sale of their token, sharing an address where investors could send SOL and receive AQUA tokens after launch. According to an announcement, the protocol raised $1 million in 30 minutes [1].

Aqua gained credibility through partnerships with established Solana entities, including Meteora, Helius, SYMMIO, and Dialect, as well as promotion from various influencers. QuillAudits provided additional legitimacy on Aug. 31, congratulating the Aqua team for achieving a “99.7% score” in their security assessment and praising their commitment to security [1].

ZachXBT’s investigation revealed that funds were “split four ways and transferred between intermediary addresses before being sent to multiple instant exchanges” just hours before his report was submitted [1]. The team disabled replies on all X posts following the alleged exit. Ethos Network CEO Serpin Taxt confirmed the project’s dissolution, stating Aqua had briefly contacted his team about potential collaboration before disappearing. He added that Aqua’s team deleted the messages sent through Telegram [1].

The platform launched its token through what it called a “Liquidity Ladder” model, marketed as an alternative to traditional presales that would ensure “deep launch liquidity” and “fair price discovery.” This mechanism was designed to reward early conviction while avoiding insider allocations that typically benefit institutional investors [1].

Following the alleged rug pull, Aqua published a new smart contract address and claimed their Medium account was “unexpectedly suspended,” preventing them from publishing a detailed explanation. The team promised to share information through alternative channels but provided no updates as of press time [1].

Meteora co-lead Soju addressed the accusations that the protocol helped a scam project to gain traction. Soju stated: “Our prerogative will be to support teams using our tech, sometimes that results in a good launch, sometimes it doesn’t. I personally have installed processes that heavily weight this in our favor. However, I recognize that we could have managed expectations better and would further tighten internal processes to reduce this from happening” [1].

Despite the suspicious transactions of the money from their presale address, there is no formal confirmation as of press time that Aqua performed a rug pull [1].

References:
[1] https://cryptoslate.com/solana-trading-bot-aqua-allegedly-rug-pulls-4-65-million-after-major-ecosystem-endorsements/