ZackXBT just lately uncovered a rip-off involving French developer Jolan Lacroix, who misappropriated $900,000 from the TICKER token presale on Base.
TICKER had raised 877 Ethereum (ETH), equal to $3.19 million, with guarantees of particular token distributions together with liquidity provision, presale, airdrops, rewards for early contributors, and a reserve for errors. The mission staff selected to stay nameless.
The rip-off unfolded shortly after the Token Era Occasion (TGE), when Jolan, tasked with distributing airdrop tokens, offered 13% of the TICKER provide for $900,000 on March 16, betraying the neighborhood’s belief. ZackXBT’s investigation started with conversations with one other staff member, resulting in the publicity of Jolan’s actions on Warpcast and X.
In line with ZackXBT, Jolan tried to launder the stolen funds by transferring the ETH throughout totally different blockchains utilizing Orbiter Finance, Mayan Swap, and Allbridge, from Base to Ethereum, then to Solana. He later admitted to the theft on X, unabashedly stating he was “not sorry” earlier than deactivating his account.
The investigation revealed that Jolan redirected $536,000 of the stolen belongings again to Ethereum, investing roughly $161,000 in Milady NFTs and derivatives, whereas additionally partaking in meme coin buying and selling, sustaining over $140,000 throughout a number of wallets. This incident highlights the dangers related to nameless groups and the significance of due diligence within the digital asset house.
The recognition of the Milady NFT assortment has attracted a number of scammers over the previous week. The gathering’s creator, Charlotte Fang, was hacked earlier this week, as a hacker drained hundreds of thousands in ETH from the mission’s DAO. The gathering additionally launched its meme coin presale, which reached its $18.6 million objective in simply two hours on March 19.