The long-awaited star project Ethereum L2 ZKsync is finally going to launch its token. Today, the community is filled with users sharing the amount of ZKsync airdropped tokens, and as of the time of writing, ZK is trading at $0.9 on the Whales pre-trading market. It is reported that early users received an airdrop of 3.675 billion ZK tokens, accounting for 17.5% of the total supply.

In order to receive the airdrop, users had to actively interact with the ZKsync ecosystem. However, just a few days before the token launch, the project team took advantage of the mainnet upgrade to run away with the funds, adding another "rug pull" on ZKsync.

User Funds Locked, Project Team Runs Away

This time, the rug pull project was GemSwap, a decentralized trading platform on ZKsync, with the team behind it named Gemholic.

Last year, Gemholic raised 921 ETH on ZKsync. However, due to technical differences between ZKsync's Era network and the Ethereum mainnet at the time, Gemholic's fundraising method on ZKsync directly copied the Ethereum contract code. Due to insufficient testing of the differences in ZKsync architecture, the transfer() function in Gemholic's contract incurred gas fees exceeding the limit on ZKsync, resulting in the locked funds.

The Block's research director, Eden Au, noticed this issue and posted it on Twitter, "A project on ZKsync raised 921 ETH (1.7 million USD) through token sales, but the funds are forever trapped in the smart contract. The transfer() function is applicable to Ethereum and other EVM chains, but not to ZKsync."

At that time, the ZKsync team quickly responded to this issue. They later proposed a solution, "In this case, we have found an elegant solution that addresses a broader range of gas-related issues. It will require minimal changes to the protocol's gas non-metering, but will allow for a complete refund of funds."

Gemholic also quickly made a commitment, stating on their official Twitter account, "We understand that many people have lost confidence, but we still believe that the ZKsync team can get things done. We need everyone to trust us. Once the protocol is confirmed, we will launch marketing activities and project pre-release. We will also refund the excess funds."

However, this tweet can now only be viewed in web archives. After being able to withdraw funds from the ZKsync mainnet, Gemholic deactivated its Twitter account.

More than a year later, the value of the 921 ETH raised by Gemholic has tripled to over three million USD. On June 7th, ZKsync began a mainnet upgrade, adding a feature in version v24 that allows the transfer() function to be called without specifying gas, to improve compatibility with Ethereum.

This adjustment provided an opportunity for the Gemholic project. Users who participated in Gemholic's fundraising expected to receive their refunds, but instead witnessed another rug pull project on ZKsync.

The community discovered that the day after the V2 upgrade, Gemholic withdrew 921 ETH from the project contract and bridged it to the Ethereum mainnet. Subsequently, screenshots circulated in the community showing that Solomon, the founder of Gemholic, deleted all messages in the TG group, and the official Twitter account of Gemholic was also deleted. It is clear that the project team ran away with the funds after "unwinding" their position.

Is ZKsync Now Labeled as a "Rug Chain"?

This incident has sparked anger in the community. NSerec, the founder of zkMarkets, directly tweeted, "Today, 3.5 million USD was stolen by Gemholic, which has been making false promises to investors for a whole year, but implemented fraudulent behavior after the funds were finally unlocked."

In fact, Gemholic is not the only project on ZKsync that has experienced a rug pull. The community even criticized ZKsync as a "rug chain."

On April 13, 2023, the ZKsync ecosystem project SyncDex Finance was suspected of a rug pull. According to related information, users collectively staked over 100 ETH and 98,444.8 USDC in the project, and its official social media platforms and Discord channel were closed after doubts spread.

Less than a month later, a meme project called SHIBERA on ZKsync was accused of a rug pull. The project's official Twitter account was deactivated, and the liquidity pool on SyncSwap was also drained. Before the rug pull, SHIBERA had announced an airdrop.

One of the most memorable rug events in the community came from Kannagi Finance, a well-known DeFi project on ZKsync Era. In July last year, the project's TVL plummeted overnight from 2.13 million USD to just 24 USD, and its official Twitter account was quickly deactivated.

Just two weeks ago, the ZKsync ecosystem lending platform xBank Finance also appeared to have experienced a rug pull. It is reported that the protocol's TVL (total locked value) has nearly reached zero, and its official Twitter account has been frozen, making it impossible to obtain the latest developments. Previously, xBank Finance had been one of the more active DeFi projects in the ZKsync ecosystem.

Currently, the ZKsync team has not made a clear statement on a fund recovery plan for users. In the case of the GemSwap incident, it may be quite difficult for users who suffered losses to recover the transferred funds. In the previous rug incidents, ZKsync has not taken effective action.

The ZKsync airdrop is seen as a "big wool" by the community, but these rug projects also serve as a constant reminder to the crypto community that the exploration of the on-chain world not only holds "treasures" but also carries inherent dark risks.

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