Pond0x DEX claims $100M in trading volume as critics allege it’s a scam

The Pond0X decentralized speech (DEX) has reached much than $100 cardinal successful full trading volume, according to a September 28 societal media station from its authoritative channel. Investors antecedently mislaid implicit $2 cardinal successful the motorboat of the exchange’s autochthonal token, PNDX, erstwhile the coin turned retired to person a transportation relation that allowed anyone to transportation it without the owner's permission. But supporters assertion these losses were not the responsibility of the developer.

— Pond Coin (@Pond0x) September 28, 2023

As grounds for Pond0X DEX’s trading volume, the authoritative transmission cited a Dune dashboard created by idiosyncratic mogie, which shows implicit $111 cardinal successful all-time trading measurement arsenic of September 29.

Total measurement metric for Pond0X. Source: @mogie Dune channel

The PNDX token launched connected July 28. At the time, critics accused the task of being a “rug-pull” oregon exit scam. At contented was the unorthodox mode that the project’s founder, Jeremy Cahen (also known arsenic “Pauly”), launched the coin. In the motorboat station connected X (formerly Twitter), Cahen posted the URL to an app that allowed radical to deposit a fixed magnitude of Ether (ETH) to person a fixed magnitude of PNDX. He besides posted the declaration code for the token.

In response, immoderate investors started buying the coin connected Uniswap, utilizing its declaration code to place it, portion others deposited ETH into the app to person PNDX. The terms connected Uniswap rapidly roseate supra that of the ETH needed to mint PNDX, truthful minters started selling their coins into the marketplace astatine a profit. Critics claimed that this process transferred implicit $2 cardinal of wealthiness from those who bought the coin connected Uniswap to those who minted it utilizing the app. The ETH deposited done the app went into a declaration that contained nary means of reclaiming the funds, starring critics to allege that the full task was intended to drain funds from investors and nonstop it to Cahen.

In addition, coding experts began claiming that the token lacked a mean transportation function. Instead of lone allowing the token proprietor to transportation it, PNDX allowed anyone to transportation tokens. This meant that each PNDX proprietor could suffer their tokens astatine immoderate moment, since immoderate programmer could “steal” their PNDX utilizing developer tools. On July 29, Solidity enthusiast and blogger sm-stack claimed they ran a trial successful Foundry that proved this point.

However, much than 2 months aft the project’s launch, it continues to garner hundreds of supporters connected Twitter, with replies to authoritative posts routinely saying specified things arsenic “FEELS GOOD MAN” and “Best DEX, don’t spot a crushed for radical to usage different tbh.”

Best DEX, don’t spot a crushed for radical to usage different tbh

— Lemur (@OGLemur) September 28, 2023

On July 29, crypto trader and blogger Antony Williams claimed to person work the app’s astute declaration codification and determined however it works. According to him, Pond0x is “fundamentally an LP Farm” and not a implicit scam. The app issues each idiosyncratic an ID that determines the user’s stock of a excavation of Pepe (PEPE) tokens. Users tin summation the Pepe rewards they are entitled to by calling the “BribeforLevelUp” function. To telephone this function, the idiosyncratic indispensable deposit 0.26 ETH. This ETH is utilized to acquisition Pepe tokens, which past get deposited into the excavation to wage retired rewards. The speech besides issues a “Score” to each user. Higher scores correspond much imaginable rewards from trading fees collected, each different factors being held constant.

Related: BALD token developer denies rug propulsion arsenic terms falls 85% post-launch

Williams did not accidental these rewards could beryllium claimed immediately, but asserted that the developer “likely” has the volition to wage them retired astatine immoderate constituent successful the future. He besides claims that the PNDX token “is fundamentally valueless,” which whitethorn person been created ithis mode “to debar ineligible complications.”

The task launched its decentralized speech connected September 1. According to the Dune dashboard cited above, this DEX has present reached implicit $100 cardinal successful trading volume, showing that astatine slightest immoderate traders are undeterred by Pond0X criticism.