Unfortunately, rug pulling has become synonymous with the cryptocurrency market as scammers see it as an opportunity to make a quick buck. One such attack has hit the Nigerian crypto community
The Genesis of the Stimmy Coin (STIMMY)
Browsing through X (formerly Twitter) posts related to Stimmy Coin, it appears that the coin was created as a parody of the stimulus checks received by United States residents during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
The coin seemed to gain popularity quickly because its founder was widely known in the Nigerian crypto community. Founder Feyi, whose X account (formerly Twitter) @feyi_x has more than 84,000 followers, he managed to gain great popularity for the STIMMY project by organizing contests on social networks and the like.
Interestingly, examining the founder’s posts revealed that he had always been a vocal critic of founders who pulled rugs or scammed investors, which is why he gained such a loyal following. This number of followers grew as he prepared to launch his project.
On pre-sale day, Feyi would take the unconventional route of asking investors to send eth to a personal wallet address instead of using an established pre-sale platform like Pinksale. From this moment on, the project seems doomed to failure.
After raising $300,000 in the pre-sale, tokens were distributed to participants and the STIMMY coin was listed on decentralized exchanges, which is where the cracks started to show. At first, less than half of the pre-sale funds were added to the liquidity pool, which meant that participants suffered losses from the beginning. However, many kept the faith because they believed in Feyi.
The next crack that showed was that the marketing for the STIMMY coin seemed to be non-existent even though the founder had around $150,000 in his personal wallet. The funds were never used for marketing and the preventers never made a profit. Not long after, Feyi disappeared from social media and began moving the scam loot from him to Binance. However, this was not the end.
Feyi and developer withdraw liquidity pool for STIMMY crypto
The STIMMY liquidity pool was initially locked up for four months and even this gave investors pause as it showed that the cryptocurrency founder might be up to no good. Investors will eventually be right in their assumptions when liquidity is unlocked on Friday, October 27.
I have just received information that the $STIMMY LP that was withdrawn and moved to Kucoin was @DevPanther999 who was the developer of Feyi. He swindled them out of the LP ($85,000) and other funds he moved from the project. This is not his first scam as he also did the same with another project. He is completely deceived. https://t.co/AvgAxZU0gE
— Somto (@Ogcsn) October 27, 2023
As soon as the unlock occurred, the $85,000 worth of eth remaining in the liquidity pool was moved quickly and bounced around multiple wallets in what appears to be a strategy to hide the funds, and apparently ended up on the KuCoin exchange.
In true X style, users began their own investigations and discovered the developer behind the project, who supposedly goes by the name X. @DevPanther999. The developer’s LinkedIn page has since been modified and is already circulating on social media. Founder Feyi has also felt misled by images that carpet victims have circulated on social media.
The developer behind the infamous $STIMMY pull the rug
It is responsible for extracting liquidity from $STIMMY pic.twitter.com/z8BAIpyQBr
– Rey.sol (@teddi_speaks) October 27, 2023
By withdrawing liquidity, the founder and team behind the STIMMY project have made a complete withdrawal, leaving investors who were already at a loss with completely worthless coins that they can no longer sell.
The project comes as a warning about the dangers of investing in untested and unproven cryptocurrency founders. Furthermore, it is also a serious blow for a country (Nigeria) that has struggled for the region’s projects to be taken seriously on the global stage, further damaging an already fragile reputation.
Total market cap at $1.23 trillion | Source: crypto Total Market Cap on Tradingview.com
Featured image by Cryptoknowmics, chart by Tradingview.com
