Report: Rug Pull Incidents in the Crypto Space Have Decreased, but Their Impact Has Grown

Hong Kong police received a report on October 3 from a 60-year-old woman. The woman had previously met a self-proclaimed "investment expert" on an online platform, who later lured her to invest in cryptocurrency on a fake website through an online investment platform. The involved platform then demanded the woman pay a deposit to verify that her investment account was not used for money laundering. Between April 14 and September 22, the woman transferred funds multiple times to the designated investment accounts, totaling approximately HK$21.5 million. She subsequently reported the case to police after suspecting fraud. Following an initial investigation, police classified the case as "obtaining property by deception" and assigned it to the Fourth Criminal Investigation Team of Sau Mau Ping Police District. No arrests have been made in connection with the case so far. Police stated that upon conviction for this offense, the maximum penalty is 14 years of imprisonment.

Well-known trader Bonk Guy’s total token holdings are currently valued at approximately $13.7 million, a drawdown of roughly $13.9 million from the prior peak of $27.6 million he hit on September 6. His top three spot token holdings are PONS ($4.51 million), USELESS ($3.83 million), and MARSCOIN ($2.87 million).

Ripple and the XRP Ledger Foundation have jointly established XRP Asia, led by Sabrina Tachdjian. The initiative aims to provide dedicated projects, resources, and event support for developers, startups, and communities across the Asia-Pacific region, with the goal of driving widespread adoption of the XRP Ledger (XRPL) among Asian developers. Building on the existing XRPL Korea and XRPL Japan communities, XRP Asia will expand new communities in major Asian cities and developer hubs. It will also roll out XRPL learning resources, partner programs for system integrators and development companies, and initiatives including hackathons, office hours, and product delivery mentoring. Additionally, the organization will offer market expansion support for XRPL startups—such as connecting them with infrastructure and service providers, incubating and funding projects, matching partners and investors, and assisting teams in organizing joint events and promoting founder-led projects.

DWF Labs Managing Partner Andrei Grachev stated that if Donald Trump wins the midterm elections and disburses $5,000 to every U.S. adult, the scale would reach 150% of the COVID-19 era’s "helicopter money" program. He noted that a portion of these funds would inevitably flow into the crypto market, potentially triggering a bull run comparable to the 2021 rally. However, Grachev warned that investors should take profits during such a rally, as a crisis could follow. Earlier reports had noted Trump’s renewed pledge: if Republicans secure control of both the House of Representatives and Senate in the midterms, he will issue a $5,000 "dividend" to every adult U.S. citizen. Based on an estimated 240 million U.S. adults, the plan would cost roughly $1.2 trillion, making it one of the largest economic stimulus measures in the U.S. since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hyperdash co-founder Hans published a post noting that Hyperliquid’s AQAv2 mechanism has established a new revenue stream. On October 3, the AQAv2 treasury wallet completed its first payment of $14.58 million for the USDC reserves held by the trading platform over the prior 30 days. The funds will be allocated to an assistance fund for purchasing HYPE. Under the mechanism, after users bridge USDC to Hyperliquid, Circle mints the corresponding assets on HyperEVM, and charges fees on the treasury balance daily, with settlements occurring every 30 days. Coinbase and Circle each staked 500,000 HYPE; if payments are delayed, Coinbase could lose 2% of its staked amount per day. Hans added that Hyperliquid’s previous revenue was primarily derived from trading fees, while AQAv2 enables the platform to earn income directly from margin deposits themselves, regardless of whether the associated funds are used for trading. The first payment covers the period from August 26 to September 24, with an implied average rate of roughly 3.14%. At current scale, annualized revenue is estimated at approximately $193 million. From January 1 to September 30 this year, Hyperliquid’s open interest rose from $7.72 billion to $16.4 billion, and platform margin increased from $4.34 billion to $7.22 billion. Over the same period, perpetual contracts recorded around $2 trillion in total trading volume, generating $493.3 million in fees for the protocol, equivalent to roughly 2.46 basis points per dollar of trading volume. Using this year’s average trading speed and current AQAv2 rate, every $1 of margin contributes about 15.4 cents in annual revenue to the protocol, split into ~12.5 cents from trading fees and ~2.8 cents from AQAv2. Hans projected that under the baseline scenario of stablecoin volume growing 20% annually and Hyperliquid retaining its current ~8.7% market share, the protocol’s annual revenue could rise from the current ~$1.11 billion to $2.4 billion by the end of 2030.

Cronos Network announced that two token economic proposals have been approved, with 228 million CRO from its community pool burned, bringing the total cumulative CRO burn to 428 million. Under the passed proposals, all future revenue from Ult and Cronos Launch will be allocated to repurchase CRO on the open market, which will then be burned monthly, and all related transaction hashes will be made public.