Over 400 million TRX tokens stolen by DeFi protocol SharkTron
- Twitter users report on an exit scam within the Tron ecosystem.
- The developer of the DeFi-project SharkTron allegedly stole $10 million in TRX.
The community suspects the anonymous SharkTron developer's exit scam, who rode off into the sunset with hundreds of millions TRX. While the exact amount of the theft remains unknown, Twitter users report the loss of 366-400 million TRX (about $10 million at the current exchange rate).
Tron Foundation confirms the scam
The official Twitter account of the Tron Foundation confirmed the incident and contacted Binance to chase the offender and return the stolen funds jointly. While Binance has already frozen a portion of the funds, other exchanges may also be involved in chasing down the money.
The team suggested that the victims should file a report to their local police officers.
(2/2) If you were a victim in this case, please file a police report and work with law enforcement to seek recovery. We will be also working with all exchanges to track the rest of the funds and protect the interest of the #TRON Communities.
— TRON Foundation (@Tronfoundation) November 9, 2020
The first scam reports started to pop up on October 28, several days after the project's press release had been published on Bitcoin.com. Users left comments under the pinned post in the SharkTron Twitter account. At about the same time, people started experiencing troubles with access to the website of the project.
These guys are scammers-closed after making a deposit! pic.twitter.com/aCRfwo30N3
— RB (@Raviddin) October 28, 2020
Users ask uncomfortable questions
Some users claim that SharkToken was white-listed by JustSwap, a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange service curated by Justin Sun. Twitter is bubbling with comments that customers warned Tron's creator of the project's fraudulent nature and even asked him to block the anonymous developer's wallet. However, Sun ignored the red flags.
Twitter user Joelison Enejeta posted screens of SharkTron's smart contract wallet address to prove the fact of the scam.
414m trx stolen by sharktron under your own watch. I regret knowing about trx, @justinsuntron 80% of your community has been scammed. pic.twitter.com/oGQeIb46br
— Joelison Enejeta (@JEnejeta) November 9, 2020
Some of them even accused Sun of direct involvement in the scam; however, these allegations are not confirmed by the facts.
What is SharkTron
SharkTron is a DeFi-project based on the Tron blockchain. It was launched by an anonymous developer known under the nickname Daniel Wood. According to the official press release, published by Bitcoin.com, the project is focused on creating a completely autonomous platform with the gradual transition to self-governance by the community members. The developer invited TRX users to stake their coins in the exchange SHARK (SRX), the native tokens of the platform.
The press release says:
SharkTRON is an autonomous full-cycle ecosystem. Platform members use TRX tokens to mine SHARK (SRX) tokens. These tokens can be used for activities within the platform or exchanged for JustSwap.
Basically, the scheme duplicates the yield mining framework, popular among ETH-based DeFi projects. However, apart from that, the SharkTRON ecosystem offered gambling possibilities on the SharkDice platform. It was expected that the community members would use their SRX and TRX to place bets and receive a bonus that can also be used within the platform.
Author
Tanya Abrosimova
Independent Analyst
