NFT Marketplace SudoRare Suffers $800k Exploit After Making its Debut

SudoRare, a new Non-Fungible Token (NFT) trading platform, has gone offline approximately 6 hours after it made its debut. 

The platform has performed what’s known as a “Rug Pull”.

A rug pull is a cybercrime in which the developers of a project deliberately abandon the protocol after draining the funds. 

Users are often the major losers in this form of the scheme as there will be no one to help with the recovery of funds. The SudoRare rug pull was estimated by blockchain security analytics outfit Peckshield to be worth 519 ETH (approximately $815,000) 

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According to Peckshield, one of the three identified addresses belongs to a Kucoin Exchange user. The conclusion that this attack was a rug pull is purely centered on the fact that it is only the project’s founders that have access to the NFT marketplace’s liquidity.

Users have been forewarned about the likelihood of SudoRare turning out to be a scam project drawing on the anonymity of its founders. 

The suspicions were confirmed and at the time of writing, both the SudoRare platform and the protocol’s social media handles have all gone offline.

SudoRare: Special But Shortlived

SudoRare was designed to be a revolutionary decentralized NFT trading platform. It was fronted to be a combined fork of Sudoswap and LooksRare. 

While Sudoswap works by permitting NFTs to be deposited in a liquidity pool, LooksRare works under a more conventional buying and selling model. LooksRare, however, differs from its top competitors like OpenSea and Magic Eden in that it has a native token through it uses to reward users who complete a trade on the platform.

The SudoRare platform was modeled to combine the benefits of both Sudoswap and LooksRare and has a native token, $SR for ecosystem rewards.

While exploits are not uncommon in the digital currency and specifically NFT ecosystem, ‘Rug Pulls’ are extremely rare. This unfortunate incident with SudoRare still accounts for why prospective Web3.0 users and the regulatory agencies still looks at NFTs with skepticism.

While this can slow down the perceived growth thus far, innovators are currently building solutions to help combat cybercrime and rug pulls in the most ingenious ways.