Crypto Exit Scam: How Projects Vanish and How to Avoid Them
When a crypto exit scam, a deliberate fraud where developers abandon a project and steal investor funds. Also known as a rug pull, it’s one of the most common ways people lose money in crypto. It doesn’t look like a hack. There’s no breach. The team just disappears—along with millions in tokens, liquidity, and your savings. You check the website: gone. The Telegram group: silent. The Twitter account: deleted. And your wallet? Empty.
These scams aren’t rare. Look at MyCoinStory, a crypto derivatives exchange that vanished without warning in 2025, or Cryptopia, a once-popular altcoin exchange that collapsed after a hack and never recovered. Both were once promoted as trustworthy platforms. But behind the marketing, there was no real team, no long-term plan—just a lure for new investors. The same pattern shows up in tokens like Summit (SUMMIT), a memecoin with fake supply numbers and zero development, and HadesAI (HADES), a token claiming AI security features but with no working product. These aren’t failures—they’re designed to fail. The goal isn’t to build something useful. It’s to collect your money and vanish before anyone notices.
What makes a crypto exit scam different from a failed startup? Timing. Legit projects struggle, pivot, or slow down. Scams vanish overnight. They’ll hype a token with fake social media buzz, promise impossible returns, and lock up liquidity so you can’t sell. Then, in a single transaction, the devs drain the pool and disappear. No warning. No explanation. Just silence. And the worst part? You’re often blamed for being "greedy" or "not doing your research." But if the project had real fundamentals, it wouldn’t need to hide. The truth is, many of these scams are run by people who know exactly what they’re doing—and they count on you trusting the surface.
What you’ll find in the posts below are real cases of projects that disappeared, exchanges that shut down, and tokens that turned out to be nothing. You’ll see how Liquidus lied about its airdrop, how RadioShack’s token has no team, and how Summit’s entire story was made up. These aren’t hypotheticals. They’re documented collapses. And by learning how they happened, you’ll know exactly what to look for before you invest. No fluff. No hype. Just facts that could save your money.