DeFi Exit Scam: Yfdexf.Finance Defrauds Investors Of $20M In Funds

A new decentralized finance scam has made an exit with $20 million worth of investor's money.

Prior to the eventual "rug pull", liquidity mining pool DeFi project, Yfdexf.Finance, ran an advertising campaign on various social media platforms including Twitter and Telegram for two days to convince people to put money in the project, reported news outlet ZyCrypto. It had also promised to pay those who promote the project on social media.

"YFDEX is the FIRST and LEGIT protocol to get rewarded on your TrippleStaking," said the ad campaign posted on Telegram. Twitter user "CryptoWhale" shared a screenshot of the now-deleted post on Twitter on Thursday. With obvious grammar and spelling errors, many Twitter users wondered how users fell for the scam. The ZyCrypto report said it could be possible that investors took the opportunity with Yfdexf.finance because of the success of YFI and its copycats.

Yfdexf has deleted its website, tweets and also the Telegram account before exiting the market with the money. Those who promoted the project also did not receive the promised payment.

CryptoWhale argues that 99.99% of all decentralized tokens are scams. "Please be careful if you heavily invested," he added.

Some Twitter users defended the DeFi system. "Some people chose to take the wrong route and steal the money, that’s all. But the whole idea behind Defi is genius," one user replied to CryptoWhale.

According to intelligence firm Messari's Defi Assets list, the majority of DeFi tokens are in the red in the past seven days. Among the biggest losers, Akropolis (AKRO) is still down 37% while Meta (MTA) is down 27%. Among the gainers are Gnosis (GNO) at 37% and Yearn Finance's YFI at 18%. One new entrant in Messari's list is Cream, which now trades at $261.

The controversial Sushi Token, whose founder recently dumped his tokens in the market for Ethereum, appeared to have stabilized at $2.13, though the price is still a far cry from its price on Sept. 3, which is $11.17.