Aqua, a Solana based project marketed itself as a democratized trading bot with up to 90 million in volume and milliseconds execution times. The AQUA token offered by the project was to distribute the trading fees through buy-and-burn mechanisms and staking rewards. One of the public sales raised 1 million money within 30 minutes.
Credibility was built up through audits and Ecosystem Support.
Major Solana advocates, such as Meteora, SYMMIO, Dialect and Helius, supported Aqua. QuillAudits further provided legitimacy, commendation of the security practices of the team, and offered a score of 99.7% out of the 100. The visibility of Aqua was also heightened by influencers who made Aqua look like a credible project.
Funds Moved, Accounts Locked
Blockchain sleuth ZachXBT disclosed that Aqua had transferred 21,770 SOL (valued at 4.65M) by means of intermediary wallets to instant trades. The replies of X were locked and Ethos CEO confirmed that the team disappeared after a short contact. Aqua erased old messages and ceased to reply.
Question Mark on Liquidity Ladder Launch.
The Liquidity Ladder was promoted as a fair launch model of Aqua. However, following the so-called rug pull, the crew updated a new smart contract address and the communication silence was the result of Medium account issues, they claimed. Meteora Soju acknowledged that they could do better at vetting but did not go further to acknowledge fraud. To date there is no official decision that proves a rug pull, but suspicions are not low
