CertiK's identification of Crypto Cars as 'rug pull' was a false alarm

CertiK's identification of Crypto Cars as 'rug pull' was a false alarm

In a period of market downturns, rumors of crypto bans and decentralized finance, or DeFi scams, blockchain enthusiasts can be sensitive to the smallest abnormalities within projects they follow and sometimes erroneously fear for the worse. The day prior, CertiK, a leading cybersecurity ranking platform in the blockchain space, issued a warning via Twitter regarding CryptoCars, alleging that it was a "rug pull." However, the staff quickly deleted the post as it was a false alarm.

Via a series of Twitter screenshots obtained by Cointelegraph, CertiK first claimed that the website and Telegram for CrytoCars were down. However, users quickly pointed out that both the CryptoCars website and Telegram apps were still functional, resulting in CertiK rescinding the community alert.

Our top trading bots

According to the developers of CryptoCars, the project's Telegram chat will be temporarily closed "until the end of the Lunar New Year from 27th Jan to 7th Feb." The CryptoCars development team is based in Vietnam, which celebrates the Lunar New Year holiday.

Sources at CertiK issued the following statement to Cointelegraph regarding the incident:

"Incident reporting, although complex, is rapid in nature and is done in a manner to alert the community on up-to-date suspicious activity. In this situation, we noticed [their] Telegram went offline, funds dropping to zero, and the $CCARs website being unavailable. This created an alert of a possible rug pull."

Despite the error, CertiK has done much to benefit the blockchain community. As recently as the day prior, it issued a verified community alert for Qubit Finance as the protocol suffered an $80 million hack.

CryptoCars launched in September 2021 as a nonfungible token, or NFT, car racing game. Structured under a play-to-earn model, CryptoCars requires players to purchase an NFT car minted on the Binance Smart Chain through a blind box created by its developers for 6,600 CCAR or from another user starting at 490 CCAR. According to its official site, the project claims to have 721,683 players, 582,666 NFT cars, and 248.8 million in-game transactions at the time of publication. It also has over 124,500 followers on Twitter.

Keep reading relating to Cointelegraph
Crypto and NFTs meet regulation as Turkey takes on the digital future
In her monthly Expert Take column, Selva Ozelli, an international tax attorney and CPA, covers the intersection between emerging technologies and sustainability,...
Polkadot price moves higher as parachain auctions reduce DOT’s circulating supply
This week, a number of contenders are set to participate in Polkadot's first parachain auctions and this process tends to place buy pressure on DOT, while...
BREAKING: Cream Finance appears to have suffered major loss in flash loan hack
Decentralized lending platform Cream Finance appears to have suffered a severe exploit on Wednesday, with an attacker stealing over $100 million worth of...
How a single-strategy crypto algorithm turned $100 into $36,205 in 10 months
Before we get into the nitty gritty of how one simple rule created the kind of insane return on investment noted in the headline, let’s be clear on one...
Bitcoin heads towards $60,000 with ETF approval on the horizon
By Samuel IndykInvesting.com – The price of Bitcoin resumed its path higher on Thursday with markets still hopeful that a Bitcoin ETF, most likely based...
G7 leaders issue central bank digital currency guidelines
Group of Seven advanced economic nations has been discussing central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) this week, concluding that they should “do no harm”...
SEC registrants seek DeFi and physically backed Bitcoin ETF approval
Crypto companies from the United States filed two registration statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission, seeking permission to sell exchange-traded...
SEC charges Rivetz over $18M ICO, seeks the return of 'ill-gotten gains'
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Rivetz over an alleged illegal securities offering that fetched around $18 million.Rivetz...
Is Ethereum’s rally signaling the next bull market phase for Bitcoin above $50K?
Bitcoin (BTC) has been seeing some consolidation below $50,000 as a psychological barrier. However, during this pullback, several big altcoins have been...
Nifty News: Mike Tyson’s ear-biting tokens, the NFT that makes you a TV star, and more…
Mike Tyson bites the ear off NFTsBoxing legend Mike Tyson has dropped a series of tokenized collectibles on the heavyweight champion platform of the NFT...
Fidelity’s crypto ambitions are bigger than expected: report
Fidelity’s plan to corner the cryptocurrency market appears to be more ambitious than previously imagined, as the asset manager looks to provide more institutional...
Crypto needs a decentralized daily reference rate
“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it” is probably the most cited quote attributed to Peter Drucker, who is known as the father of management thinking....
Bill to make Bitcoin legal tender passes in El Salvador
The President of El Salvador's bill to make Bitcoin legal tender in El Salvador passed Congress with a supermajority just before 6AM UTC.In a Twitter Spaces...
Litecoin Climbs 12% As Investors Gain Confidence
Investing.com - Litecoin was trading at $302.894 by 23:42 (03:42 GMT) on the Investing.com Index on Tuesday, up 12.23% on the day. It was the largest one-day...
Summer shorts: NANO price spike gives traders a chance to bet against the rally
When Elon Musk’s ‘Bitcoin is bad for the environment’ tweet caused a flash crash of BTC and the majority of altcoins’ prices earlier this week, a handful...