Another day, another rug pull: the beachswap hack

A lot can indeed happen within 24 hours. Ask Jack Bauer of the acclaimed hit series , 24 and he will certainly attest to this. The events which unfolded in the last 24 hours have indeed left a bitter taste in the mouths of many in the BCH community , particularly those who will be unable to recover funds that were invested. Even those with a glimmer of hope for recovering their invested funds, know that it will not be an easy ride.

Haven witnessed my fair share of rug pulls as an early investor on the Binance Smart Chain, I thought I had seen all the tactics that could be employed by Devs with malicious intent. Little did I know that I was literally still a learner as in reality no one can lay claim to have seen it all. The classic approach for rug pulls used to be first, the Devs or admins suddenly become mute or unresponsive in their social media handles or Telegram groups while silently initiating the process of making away with investors funds but in the case of the beachswap rug pull the dev engaged the community till the zero hour.

Who would have thought that with a total value locked of close to USD 1 million barely a few hours after launch beachswap would turn out to be a rug pull. Probably only those with a lot more experience in the defi space.

The beachswap rug pull took many by surprise especially people like me with little experience about the red flags to watch out in smart contracts as some individuals who didn't invest in the dex have now stated that there were indeed some red flags therein. I was particularly shocked when I saw chat messages about the rug pull in the evening because I had been on the site earlier in the day. The beachswap dev was indeed cruel as he took down the website as well as the telegram group which had been abuzz with activities barely a few hours earlier.

The beachswap dev hoodwinked many including myself by offering features which no other Dex was offering such as the vault and single asset staking. Whatsmore the dev was ever so eager to respond to queries or questions about the Dex in the Telegram group. He adopted a suggestion from a community member to airdrop unsold tokens after presale.

In order to ensure that all those who joined the presale got their air drops he also sent test tokens. He even conducted polls on when the dex as well as trading should commence at the end of presale. This was all apparently part of a well thought out plan to win hearts and minds in preparation for the hack.

Going forward, we are likely going to see investors being very critical about putting their funds in any upcoming project or Dex due to the fresh wounds from the beachswap rug. As they say, once bitten twice shy. Although the golden principle in the defi space is DYOR, personalities who have built a good reputation overtime and are trusted should also be wary of shilling any (new) projects without critical and detailed due diligence no matter how appealing or promising they may appear to avoid their reputation being smeared in the event that things go south.

A cold reception is likely going to be the welcome for any new projects on the SmartBch network in the near future. This is all quite unfortunate considering the momentum and excitement that was building up in the BCH community. All these due to the actions of a few bad actors in the BCH ecosystem. The recent rug pulls is also a wake up call for the Devs of the dexes that are still standing to build up trust and maintain it. They should not give any room for doubts in the minds of investors via their actions or inactions. As if trust is replaced with doubts, nothing remains. Little wonder it is said that Trust is like a glass, once broken it is virtually impossible to put it back together.