Ah, crypto. The land of digital gold, meme coins, and the occasional financial heartbreak. If 2024 has proven anything, it’s that bad actors never take a bear market off. From rug pulls so smooth they could make a magician jealous to exchange mishaps that make FTX’s implosion look like an accounting error, let’s take a look at some of the biggest foul plays in crypto this year.
1. The Great Blur Blur
NFT marketplace Blur was already a favorite playground for whales, but in 2024, one particularly slippery fish took things to the next level. A sophisticated wash trading scheme involving fake volume, inflated bids, and exit liquidity traps left unsuspecting traders holding digital bags filled with… well, nothing. The mastermind? Still at large, likely sipping a piña colada in a jurisdiction with no extradition.
2. The “AI Trading Bot” That Only Traded People’s Money Away
If AI was the buzzword of the decade, then “AI-powered trading bots” were the Ponzi schemes of the year. One particularly bold rug pull disguised as a revolutionary AI-driven hedge fund promised 100% returns using an “adaptive machine-learning blockchain protocol.” Fancy words, but turns out all the protocol adapted to was the founder’s offshore bank account. Investors saw their funds vanish overnight, along with the project’s social media pages. Classic.
3. Solana’s Weekend of Woes
Solana, the darling of high-speed blockchain evangelists, had yet another… let’s call it eventful year. In early 2024, an unknown exploit led to millions drained from unsuspecting wallets. The best part? No one could pinpoint how it happened for weeks. Some blamed a rogue validator, others a malicious upgrade, but the end result was the same: retail traders checking their balances and wondering if they’d actually been part of a stress test they never signed up for.
4. Meme Coin Mania 2.0: ‘Based’ and Broke
You’d think people would have learned their lesson after Doge, Shiba, and the million copycats. But no, 2024 saw yet another wave of meme coins promising “community-driven innovation” and delivering financial despair instead. ‘BasedCoin’ launched with an army of influencers and Telegram hype, only for the devs to drain the liquidity pool in record time. The irony? The biggest bag holders were, of course, the community itself.
5. The Exchange “Hack” That Wasn’t
In perhaps the most suspicious hack of the year, one mid-tier exchange (we won’t name names, but it rhymes with DinoMex) suffered a $200 million “security breach.” Only problem? The hacker’s wallet was linked to an account inside the exchange. The CEO, naturally, called it a coincidence, before promptly stepping down and moving to an undisclosed location. Law enforcement is still “investigating.”
Lessons Learned (Or Not)
If this year has taught us anything, it’s that scams in crypto evolve faster than blockchain tech itself. So, what’s the takeaway? If something sounds too good to be true, it’s probably just another rug waiting to be pulled. Keep your private keys safe, verify everything, and maybe—just maybe—stop falling for AI trading bots.
Because in 2024, the real innovation in crypto wasn’t new technology—it was new and improved ways to steal your money.
