Forem: Grace Ben

They Promised 100x..... Then Vanished

Grace Ben — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 09:53:15 +0000

You’ve probably seen it before: a new token launches with sky-high promises, influencers hype up the chart, traders dream of 100× gains… and then, boom!
The price collapses, the devs vanish, and your “investment” is worth zero.

This isn’t market volatility. This is a rug pull

What Is a Rug Pull?

In crypto, a rug pull is a type of exit scam in which the developers of a blockchain project create hype, attract investor capital, and then suddenly withdraw liquidity or funds, leaving token holders with worthless tokens.

The phrase comes from the expression “pull the rug out from under someone,” a perfect metaphor for how suddenly support disappears

Technically, this happens because blockchain transactions are irreversible and decentralized. Once you send tokens to a smart contract or liquidity pool, there’s no central authority to “refund” you if the developers vanish

There are two main categories of Rug Pull:

Hard Rug Pulls

These are built into the contract itself. The code intentionally enables liquidity drains, selling restrictions, or hidden mint functions. They are illegal by design, but technically hard to prosecute because developers may be anonymous.

Soft Rug Pulls

Here, the team behaves legitimately at first, building the project and its community but ultimately exits once interest peaks. This might take weeks or months and isn’t always illegal — but the financial impact is the same.

How Rug Pulls Work — Mechanisms Behind the Scam

There are a few ways rug pulls are implemented technically:

i. Liquidity Pool Withdrawal

Most tokens exist on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) like Uniswap or PancakeSwap, which use liquidity pools to enable trading.

Developers initially deposit (or “lock”) liquidity — a reserve of tokens and a paired asset (like ETH).
Once enough traders buy in and liquidity grows, the developers remove all liquidity.
With no liquidity, no one can trade the token, and its price collapses to nearly zero.

This is the classic hard rug pull — tools built into the code make it easy to drain funds but impossible for holders to sell.

ii. Smart Contract Manipulation

Some rug pulls involve malicious smart contract functions that were coded in from the beginning:

Token functions that let the creators mint unlimited coins.
Contracts that act as a honeypot, letting people buy the token but not sell it.
Backdoors that allow unauthorized transfers.

These tricks can be buried under complex logic and are nearly impossible to spot unless the contract has been audited by trusted security firms.

iii. Social Engineering + Hype

Not every rug pull uses fancy code. Some are purely social:

Projects build excitement through Discord, Telegram, influencers, and marketing.
Once enough money pours in, the developers simply stop communicating and abandon the project.

In that case, there may be no malicious code — just a community‑driven exit scam. That’s why some rug pulls are technically in a gray area of regulation.

Notable Real‑World Rug Pulls

One of the most talked‑about rug pulls came from the Squid Game token (SQUID), which spiked from fractions of a cent to thousands of dollars before crashing to almost zero once developers withdrew liquidity.

thecoinrepublic.com

Another NFT rug pull, Frosties launched in early 2022 with a collection of 8,888 NFTs that quickly sold out. The project brought in roughly $1.3 million, but as soon as the funds were received on OpenSea, they were transferred to different wallets. The Discord server was deleted, and the project’s Twitter account posted a final message that simply said, “I’m sorry.”

dappradar.com

Red Flags to Watch out for:

While no method is foolproof, the following are technical red flags that often precede rug pulls:

Unlocked liquidity: developers can withdraw it anytime.
No audit: unverified smart contract code means hidden functions may exist.
High dev token ownership: if founders hold most tokens, they have outsized control.
Anonymous team: no transparent identities means accountability is weak.

These are the kinds of signals researchers focus on when building automated systems to detect scams.

Rug Pulls Are Not Just “Bad Luck”, but they do highlight why education, transparency, and tech safeguards matter as the space evolves.

What happened to NFTs?

Grace Ben — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 15:19:41 +0000

In 2021, NFTs were everywhere, dominating headlines, celebrity social feeds, and auction houses overnight. People were selling digital art for millions, and everyone suddenly became an “NFT expert"

Fast forward to today..
poof!

The noise is gone.

So… what actually happened to NFTs?

First, What Are NFTs? (Quick Recap)

An NFT (Non-Fungible Token) is a unique digital asset stored on a blockchain.

Unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum (which are interchangeable), NFTs are:

One-of-one,
Unique,
Used to represent ownership of digital or physical items — like art, music, game items, or access rights.

In simple terms:

An NFT is a digital proof of ownership.

Why NFTs Exploded

NFTs took off because they promised:

Digital ownership for creators,
Royalties on resales,
Scarcity in a digital world,
And a new way to monetize art, culture, and community.

Combine that with a crypto bull market and social media hype, and boom, NFTs went mainstream.

So… What Went Wrong?

Several things happened at once:

Speculation Took Over
Most people didn’t buy NFTs to use them — they bought them to flip them. Prices became driven by hype instead of value. When prices stopped rising, interest dropped.
Many Projects Had No Utility
A lot of NFT projects promised:

Games,
Metaverses,
Exclusive access,
Long-term value… …but never delivered. When users realized many NFTs were just images with no real function, trust declined.

The Market Crashed
When the broader crypto market crashed in 2022, NFTs crashed with it. Since NFTs are highly speculative and illiquid, they were hit harder than most assets.
Bad Actors Hurt Trust
Scams, rug pulls, fake collections, and copycats flooded the space.
For many users, their first NFT experience was: Losing money.

That alone was enough to push people away.

Starting in late 2022 and through 2025, the NFT space experienced a notable market cooldown.

Recent on-chain data shows:

Monthly NFT sales dropped to ~$320M in late 2025 — nearly a 50% fall from the previous month.

NFT Market Slumps as Monthly Sales Drop to $320 Million - Cointribune

NFT in crisis: sales at $320 million, capitalization down 66%. Analysis of causes and impacts for December 2025.

cointribune.com
The total NFT market cap shrank by over 60% from its peak earlier in the year.

NFT Sales Sink To 2025 Low As Market Cap Drops 66% From January Peak

CryptoSlam and CoinGecko data indicate that NFTs are facing a deep contraction, with a weekly volume of $62 million and a market cap of $3.1 billion.

cointelegraph.com
Weekly sales are now often below $70M, a stark contrast with earlier volumes.

NFT Market Slides to 2025 Lows as Buyers and Sellers Pull Back

December NFT activity weakened as buyer and seller participation fell sharply, reinforcing November’s downturn and signaling a quiet year-end for digital collectibles.

cointelegraph.com

This isn’t a collapse in the sense of total disappearance, but it is a significant pullback from the hype levels of 2021–2022.

What NFTs Look Like Today

Instead of wild price speculation, the space is now:

Quieter and more mature.
Focused on utility — membership, access rights, or digital identity.
Still active, just with lower volume.

The market today isn’t “dead” — it’s refocused:

Projects with real use cases are still trading.
Artists continue to mint work with community value.
Tech infrastructure (like marketplaces and wallets) remains alive.

So what really happened to NFTs?

They evolved.

The hype wave of 2021–2022 brought NFTs into the mainstream.
The speculative bubble faded as buyers stepped back.
The NFT market cooled and matured into a quieter but still meaningful space.

NFTs aren’t gone, they’re just past their loud, headline-grabbing peak.

What remains is a smaller, more selective ecosystem where value is tied to utility, communities, and real digital ownership.

So… How Does Web3 Actually Work?

Grace Ben — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 09:31:28 +0000

At the center of Web3 are three main things:

Wallets
Blockchains
Smart contracts

Together, they replace banks, apps, and middlemen.

Wallets

Call it your digital identity

Instead of logging in with email and password, you log in with a wallet.

Your wallet is your account, your bank, and your digital ID all in one. It holds your crypto, NFTs, and access to Web3 apps. And most importantly: you own it. No company can freeze it, block you, or take it away.

Blockchains

you could call it your Public Record

Every action in Web3 happens on a blockchain.

When you send money, buy an NFT, vote, or use a Web3 app, the transaction is recorded publicly. This means anyone can verify it, no one can secretly change it, and no single company controls it.

Smart Contracts

Call it a code that keeps its word

Smart contracts are programs that live on the blockchain.

They automatically execute agreements when conditions are met, no human needed.

For example:

If you send money → you get the product.
If you stake tokens → you earn rewards.
If you vote → your vote is counted automatically.

Let’s say you want to send money to a friend.

In Web2, sending money means using a bank or app, waiting for approval, and trusting a company.

In Web3, you open your wallet, enter an address, send, and you’re done. No approvals. No delays. No third parties.

Sending money in Web3 is simple:

Wallet → Address → Send → Done.

No banks.
No approvals.
No reversals.

Web3 shifts the internet from:

“Platforms own everything.”

to:

“Users own everything.”

Web3, Explained like ABC

Grace Ben — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 10:10:11 +0000

Humor me, try Googling the word "Web3".

You’ll find many results, mostly filled with big tech jargon that makes it seem like you need a computer science degree to understand.

But here’s the truth:

even if you’re not technical, grasping the main idea behind Web3 is crucial.

This is especially true for investors, creators, and everyday internet users.

Web3 is changing how the internet works.

I'll break it down.

Web3 didn’t just pop up overnight.

It started with Bitcoin.

What is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a digital currency that lets people send money directly to each other, without banks.

Instead of trusting a bank, people trust a system called a blockchain.

What is a blockchain?

A blockchain is like a public notebook that:

Records every transaction,
Is shared across thousands of computers,
And cannot be easily changed or hacked.

This means no single company controls the data; everyone shares and verifies it together.

Then Came Ethereum.

Five years after Bitcoin, Ethereum launched.

So… What Is Web3?

In simple terms:

Web3 is the version of the internet where users own their data, money, and digital assets. Instead of sending transactions through banks, apps, or corporations, you send them directly to a decentralized blockchain.

Web3 is about:

Ownership
Transparency
Freedom
Control returning to users

Instead of:

The platform owns your data.

Web3 says:

You own your data.