- Cross-chain bridge OrdiZK is feared to have pocketed users’ funds in an exit scam
- The protocol’s team reportedly made away with $1.4 million
- OrdiZK has deactivated its social media accounts
Blockchain security platform CertiK has confirmed fears of an exit scam conducted by the creators of cross-chain bridge OrdiZK. The protocol has deactivated its social media accounts with Certik estimating the amount lost to be roughly $1.4 million. The rug pull comes three months after Celsius creditors were warned of a potential rug pull if the price of BTC and ETH touched certain levels.
Marketing and Treasury Wallets Drained
According to CertiK, OrdiZK developers pulled off the scam by dumping the protocol’s token OZK and removing ETH from pools. The draining started on March 4 when 489 million OZK tokens worth $132,000 were dumped by an entity controlling the platform’s deployer account.
We have seen an exit scam on @OrdiZK_
Website and social media accounts have been deleted
The deployer holds ~$1m worth of ETH from dumping tokens, removing ETH from project contracts and taxes from sales pic.twitter.com/BzuvSd8oLo
— CertiK Alert (@CertiKAlert) March 5, 2024
A day later, the entity offloaded another bunch of OZK tokens worth $214,000. They also siphoned $197,000 worth of ETH from the OZKStake contract. CertiK disclosed that the entity also drained $437,000 from two other wallets marked as “marketing and treasury.”
CertiK reported that the deployer wallet held the most funds with slightly above $1 million with the marketing and treasury wallets holding $173,899 and $263,482 respectively. Its X account, Telegram group and website have since been deleted.
In total, wallets belonging to the OrdiZK team hold ~$1.4m ETH.
OrdiZK Deployer: $1,037,125.98
OrdiZK Treasury: $263,482.20
OrdiZK Marketing wallet: $173,899.48— CertiK Alert (@CertiKAlert) March 5, 2024
NFT Creator Admits Conducting an Exit Scam
The exit scam comes four months after Safereum pocketed $600,000 from a funding round. It also comes two months after MangoFarmSOL closed its X account raising fears of a possible rug pull.
In November last year, Mutant Ape Planet NFT creator, Aurelien Michel, admitted in court that he had rugged users and pocketed $3 million, revealing that he didn’t intend to keep the promises he made to NFT buyers.
With OrdiZK deactivating its social media accounts, it’s to be seen whether affected users will cooperate with on-chain sleuths like ZachXBT to track the team and or recover the funds.
