Biggest crypto rug pulls of 2024: looking back

Scams in the crypto world are becoming common as blockchain is rapidly gaining global adoption.

While there are many types of scams which can include phishing (a scam where attackers deceive people into revealing sensitive information or installing malware such as viruses, worms, etc.), Ponzi schemes, and others, a popular type includes crypto rug pulls.

In this article, we will discuss some of the biggest crypto rug pulls, specifically the top 5 biggest crypto rug pulls of 2024, and list some ways to stay safe from future scams in the crypto world.

What is a crypto rug pull?

A crypto rug pull is a popular scam frequently associated with new, presumably promising cryptocurrency projects with little transparency or anonymous developers. In this scam, the developers abruptly abandon a project, taking all the invested funds with them, leaving investors with worthless tokens and effectively “pulling the rug out from under them,” resulting in significant losses for those who invested in the project.

Now let’s dive into the list of rug pulls in crypto that happened in 2024.

1. DIO token pump-and-dump

Jump Trading was accused of running a pump-and-dump operation using the Decimated (DIO) token, which was originally meant for a Fracture Labs gaming project.

To stabilize the launch on HTX (previously Huobi), the developer lent Jump millions of DIO tokens. Jump liquidated all of its holdings at the highest price after hiring influencers to increase the token’s popularity, which resulted in a steep decline as the token’s value fell. The DIO tokens were subsequently returned to Fracture Labs when Jump bought them back for a quarter of their peak value, thus depreciating their worth.

At the time of writing, the DIO token is trading at $0.007276, a 98.8% decrease from its all-time high of $0.5879.