KEY POINTS
- ATMA claimed it was undergoing blockchain auditing by prominent security firms CertiK and HashEx
- Following CertiK and HashEx's denial of ATMA's claims, the project deleted its social media handles
- ATMA joins OrdiZK, RiskOnBlast, and several other rug pulls in the crypto space this year
Blockchain protocol project Assisted Trading and Market Analysis (ATMA), which claimed that it was undergoing blockchain security audits from two prominent security firms, has vanished after the crypto analysis firms called the project out for its false claims.
Leading blockchain and DeFi project monitoring firm CertiK first said early Thursday on X (formerly Twitter) that it was informed about ATMA claiming it was going through an audit, but CertiK clarified it was "not conducting and audit and are not affiliated with this project in any way."
#CertiKInsight 🚨
— CertiK Alert (@CertiKAlert) April 10, 2024
It has come to our attention that @ATMA_ERC has stated they are undergoing an audit with us.
We are not conducting an audit and are not affiliated with this project in any way pic.twitter.com/hDvCIsxKUA
Smart contract auditing firm HashEx also came out with the same clarification following a user posting a screenshot of a community message from the ATMA team saying it was being audited by HashEx.
We wish to clarify that HashEx is NOT conducting any audit for ATMA and has no affiliation with this project.
— HashEx Blockchain Security (@HashExOfficial) April 11, 2024
Can you confirm if this has any validity from @ATMA_ERC too please? pic.twitter.com/7rNkpFjnoE
— Fred (@Duke_ofWybourne) April 10, 2024
Later on Thursday, CertiK revealed that the project had disappeared after the callout, with the ATMA social media accounts deleted. As of writing, the project's website is unavailable.
#CertiKInsight 🚨
— CertiK Alert (@CertiKAlert) April 11, 2024
Following our clarification that we have no association with ATMA, the project deleted their social media accounts
So far we have accounted for ~$410k located in the project’s marketing, development and treasury wallets.
Funds originate from taxes from users…
CertiK further revealed that it has "accounted for ~$401k located in the project's marketing, development and treasury wallets." The said wallets' funds originate from taxes on user swapping, the blockchain security firm noted.
Users who put money into the project have since expressed their disappointment on X, saying many people got "tricked" by the team behind the ERC-20 native token ATMA.
"Sad, it was a slow rug, tax farm. Clever scam, a lot of people tricked, I lost a fair amount because of it," one user said. "Bro it's done. They've been exposed. It's a scam. We lost our money. Onwards and upwards," another said.
Another user lamented the fact that he was "so positive" about the ATMA project, but it turned out to be a rug pull, a type of exit scam wherein a developer team raises funds by selling a token to the cryptocurrency public only to disappear with the funds they raised from investor-victims with tokens that ultimately crash to zero upon news of the scam.
ATMA is the latest rug pull project in the growing list of exit scams in the crypto space. The most notorious rug pulls so far this year were that of the Bitcoin project OrdiZK and gambling-exchange project RiskOnBlast as the said projects were hyped up so much, and both raised over a million in support from investor victims who trusted that the projects had huge potential to grow and succeed.
