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Scammers created a fake token with the same name, OMNI, to take advantage of the excitement surrounding the Omni token launch, which aims to connect Ethereum rollups.
Omni Network (OMNI) lost more than 56% of its market value after its airdrop distribution and exchange listing on April 17, 2024, as investors dumped the token back into the market. According to CoinGecko data, the token’s value crashed from $53 to $23 within the past 24 hours.
OMNI Underperforms after Airdrop Distribution
Starting at 11 am UTC on Wednesday, Omni distributed approximately 3% of its total token supply of 100 million to early adopters who interacted with the blockchain before launch. The airdrop allocation extended to the platform’s community, restakers in EigenLayer, and those on Beacon.
In less than 60 minutes after the token was distributed and listed on exchanges such as Binance, ByBit, Bitget, and KuCoin for trading, its value dipped 30% to around $39 from $53.
The token continued on a downward trajectory, with its market cap slipping from the $560 million it recorded before the airdrop to $245 million. It currently boasts a 24-hour trading volume of $737 million.
The decline aligns with the broader market downturn, which saw the two leading cryptocurrencies in the industry, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), plummet below $60,000 and $3000 before recovering slightly.
Fake OMNI Token Rug Pulls With Investor’s Funds
Scammers created a fake token with the same name, OMNI, to take advantage of the excitement surrounding the Omni token launch, which aims to connect Ethereum rollups.
However, according to blockchain security company PeckShield, which identified and exposed the scam, the project “rug pulled,” causing the token’s value to plummet by 100%.
Meanwhile, in a recurring trend, the recent rug pull involving the fake Omni tokens is just one of many similar scams plaguing the crypto industry. Last year, Magnate Finance rug pulled with $6.5 million belonging to users. The project’s developers stripped liquidity off the platform, sending the token price to zero. Magnate Finance was launched on Coinbase’s layer-2 network Base and exited the market after gaining millions of dollars in vestments from users.
In March 2024, OrdiZK, a crypto project promising to connect the Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana blockchains, carried out a rug pull. The developers suddenly withdrew liquidity, causing the token’s value to plummet by 99%. According to blockchain company CertiK, the scammers managed to pocket $1.4 million from this fraudulent scheme.
Rug pulls played a significant role in the industry’s $1.7 billion loss to fraudulent activities last year. Specifically, scammers siphoned off $760 million through rug pulls and related scams, as reported by blockchain security firm Quantstamp.
