Solana’s MangoFarmSOL, a farming protocol within the Solana ecosystem, is under suspicion of conducting an exit scam after abruptly deactivating its social media accounts and amid reports of missing funds.
The protocol, which promised lucrative yield opportunities in the $SOL space, had announced an airdrop of its MANGO token scheduled for January 10. Users were required to deposit Solana tokens into the protocol to be eligible for the airdrop.
The exit scam allegations were initially raised by Delegate “Foobar,” a pseudonymous developer recently appointed as MangoFarmSOL’s security auditor. In a post on social media (formerly Twitter) on January 6, Foobar warned of a compromised project front-end, hinting at the potential for a rug pull.
Following Foobar’s alert, MangoFarmSOL’s profile on social media and its website mysteriously went offline. The associated Telegram channel, boasting over 1,000 subscribers, also ceased accepting new members.
The alleged scam has led to an estimated loss of nearly $2 million, with users reporting missing funds. Screenshots of messages purportedly left by the developer behind the scam circulated on social media, suggesting involvement in Ponzi schemes and another Solana-based yield protocol called BananaMiner. However, representatives from BananaMiner vehemently denied any connections with MangoFarmSOL.
The Solana ecosystem has recently faced increased fraudulent activities, including the sale of Solana drainer kits by cybercriminals since December.
Meanwhile, Solana’s native cryptocurrency, SOL, has achieved significant milestones, surpassing Ethereum in 7-day stablecoin trading volume and NFT trade volume. In the stablecoin trading domain, Solana recorded $103 billion, outperforming Ethereum’s $90.9 billion. Additionally, Solana hosted NFT trades worth $366.6 million, surpassing Ethereum’s $353.2 million for the month of December.
Despite the success and achievements of Solana in various metrics, the exit scam incident highlights the challenges and risks associated with the decentralized finance (DeFi) space within blockchain ecosystems.
