Another DeFi platform pulls a Houdini

On January 27, 1908 at a theater in St.Louis in the United States, a man stepped into what was best described as an oversized milk can filled with water. What makes this scene chilling and suspense filled was that he was handcuffed with his hands at his front as he stepped into the can of water.

Afterwards the can was sealed with six padlocks from the outside making it impossible or so it was thought or believed for him to make his way out of the can unaided. Previously the can had been inspected under the watchful eyes of the audience to ascertain that there were no hidden escape routes within in.

However to the amazement of the audience this man emerged after about two minutes from behind a cabinet which had been wheeled around the can. He had somehow managed to free himself from the handcuffs and escaped from the can which still remained padlocked from outside.

This man was Harry Houdini and this was the first of many tricks or escapes he would pull off in his illustrious career. To some he was a master illusionist while to others he was an escape artist. In the circles of magicians, he was referred.

At his prime was reputed to be capable of escaping or making a disappearance of sorts from any restraints that were placed on him. It is therefore not surprising that his name thus comes up often as a reference in respect to mysterious or sneaky stuff just like what the Devs of the DeFi platform, SudoRare did.

The Automated market maker protocol which offered swapping from ERC-721 to ERC-20 suddenly disappeared from the internet. It services were shut down as the website (sudorare.xyz) became unavailable popping up a 403 error .

Its social media accounts were not left out as they were also deleted. The mischievous devs left a theft of 519 ETH worth close to 850K USD (as at the time of writing this piece) in the wake of their disappearing act. According to a tweet by @PeckShieldAlert the stolen ETH was shared evenly between three accounts with each receiving 173 ETH.

This is yet another instance of rug pulling which is fast becoming one of the clear and present dangers associated with the decentralised finance landscape. Sadly it isn't going to be the last as these projects promising high returns on investments continue to pop out of the woodworks ever so often.