{"id":394023,"date":"2022-01-14T15:39:52","date_gmt":"2022-01-14T12:39:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/battle-of-the-bots-wtf-token-launch-drains-58-eth\/"},"modified":"2022-01-14T15:39:52","modified_gmt":"2022-01-14T12:39:52","slug":"battle-of-the-bots-wtf-token-launch-drains-58-eth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/battle-of-the-bots-wtf-token-launch-drains-58-eth\/","title":{"rendered":"# Battle of the bots: WTF token launch drains 58 ETH"},"content":{"rendered":"

“# Battle of the bots: WTF token launch drains 58 ETH <\/strong>”<\/p>\n

Fees.wtf is a simple service that shows Ether (ETH) users their lifetime spending amount on Ethereum blockchain transactions by measuring gas. You plug in your wallet address on its website, and it tells you how much gas you spent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The project released its WTF token in an airdrop Friday. Essentially, users were able to claim WTF tokens as well as a \u201cRekt\u201d nonfungible token (NFT) for 0.01 ETH. The Rekt NFT grants lifetime access to the pro version of Fees.wtf.<\/p>\n

According to its\u00a0Discord\u00a0announcement<\/a>, the initial launch planned to offer 100 million WTF, and the \u201ccirculating supply will be the main attraction in the tokenomics.\u201d However, it didn\u2019t quite go as planned. <\/p>\n

Following frantic trading behavior between bots in the opening hours of the airdrop, one bot ran off with a reported 58 ETH, or $180,000. According to\u00a0Etherscan, 58 ETH was\u00a0drained<\/a>\u00a0from the Wrapp<\/a>ed ETH (wETH) and WTF liquidity pool. <\/p>\n

Social media<\/a> channels were quick to respond because many airdrop participants lamented losing thousands of dollars in ETH. The WTF team chimed in two hours after the airdrop to calm their ranks:<\/p>\n

\u201cImmediately on launch there was only a tiny bit of liquidity and there were ape bots that were chucking in 100s of ETH into a pool with an ETH or two of liquidity. They also had high slippage and ended up being sandwiched by the other bots which essentially drained all their ETH.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Basically, within five minutes of the token launch, poor liquidity pool management from the WTF developers left the liquidity pool exposed. As there was low liquidity, bots were able to manipulate the price of WTF to then sell for wETH. <\/p>\n

The bots battled it out until one winner took home the pot. In effect, the bot stole from users who provided liquidity to the pool, trying to claim their WTF tokens and Rekt NFT.\u00a0The victor managed to send an \u201cultra-fast transaction at 3,000 Gwei,\u201d making a 6x return on their initial investment. <\/p>\n

The WTF team sent out another Discord update two hours after the airdrop, stating, \u201cThe core contracts are all fine, this was a war on Uniswap.\u201d The team added, \u201cWe hope no one was affected by it.\u201d However, as has become a common occurrence in airdrops of late, many users lost a lot of money. <\/p>\n

The price graph of the token since launch paints<\/a> a thousand words. The initial spike shows the bot activity swiftly followed by a 10x loss in value. <\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

The official WTF Discord group is brimming with users sharing stories of losing money. Some are \u201cshaking\u201d with rage, while death threats and lawsuit claims are rife.<\/p>\n

One Etherscan transaction<\/a> points to one user losing 42 ETH, or $135,000, for 0.000044170848308398 WTF, effectively $0.01.<\/p>\n

Related: <\/em><\/strong>Recounting 2021\u2019s biggest DeFi hacking incidents<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As daylight dawns on the project, some Twitter users have\u00a0called out<\/a>\u00a0the project as a Ponzi scheme. The referral element to the project is spurious. Referrers of the WTF project claim 50% on fees \u201cto make wtf go viral,\u201d while the WTF team earns 4% from each transfer. In total, the WTF team claimed almost half a million United States dollars in token transfer fees in a little over eight hours.<\/p>\n

Twitter user Lefteris Karapetsas didn\u2019t mince<\/a> his words: <\/p>\n

\n

Summing up.<\/p>\n

WTF “team” made an app any dev can do in 1 hour
Slapped a token + ponzinomics on it
Anons aped without thinking and lost ETH in gas and claim fees
Team has so far made 116 ETH + 6,168,806 WTF. Roughly around $855,665 and this is getting bigger by the second<\/p>\n

\u2014 Lefteris Karapetsas | Hiring for @rotkiapp (@LefterisJP) January 14, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n