- Scammers are taking advantage of the just-released ChatGPT rival GROK developed by Elon Musk
- Malicious actors are creating tokens on different blockchains and some have already rug-pulled investors
- There are roughly 400 GROK tokens with most having anonymous developers
The hype around Elon Musk’s ChatGPT rival GROK has also given scammers ideas on how to defraud unsuspecting investors. Just a day after the ChatGPT rival went live, there are roughly 400 GROK tokens and none of them is officially associated with the actual GROK project. Most tokens are created by anonymous developers, a sign of a brewing disaster when it comes to blockchain projects revolving around a trending topic.
Nothing but a Grok Meme
The GROK-associated tokens have registered a market capitalization of millions of dollars with some early and lucky investors making huge profits on their initial buys. On Uniswap, for example, the token has a total market cap of slightly above $10 million.
Announcing Grok!
Grok is an AI modeled after the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, so intended to answer almost anything and, far harder, even suggest what questions to ask!
Grok is designed to answer questions with a bit of wit and has a rebellious streak, so please don’t use…
— xAI (@xai) November 5, 2023
One of the token developers has also created an X (formerly Twitter) page which already has over 4,000 followers, although it has indicated that it’s “nothing but just a grok meme.”
According to Coindesk, at least ten GROK-inspired blockchain projects have conducted a rug pull and pocketed over $1 million on their way out.
The phenomenon isn’t a unique occurrence since scammers are always on the lookout for trending topics to unsuspecting entities. The hype on the Coinbase-funded Base network, for example, led to the deployment of over 500 scam projects on the network.
Either a Rug Pull or Inflated Token Supply
Blockchain security experts and researchers think that token-based scams succeed either through an outright rug pull or by creating an “arbitrarily large quantity of new tokens,” which leaves investors holding worthless tokens.
Some blockchain projects that have been accused of maliciously removing liquidity from their projects include Teddydoge, WarOnRugs, Ordinals Finance and Friendsies.
Although investors are aware of the dangers of investing in a trending-topic-based token, the urge to triple their investments sees them scammed.
