$160 Million Rug Pull? – Crypto Staking Platform Freeway Halts Withdrawals Citing ‘Unprecedented Volatility’

Freeway Founder Graham Doggart. Source: a relevant video screenshot, Freeway / YouTube

United kingdom-based crypto platform Freeway stopped withdrawals on Sunday because of, because they claim, never-before-seen amounts of volatility – however, many reason that this is actually an area rug-pull.

“Has anybody had the ability to withdraw within the recent days,” people happen to be asking in Freeway’s Telegram funnel, with lots of replaying they have not – and they made attempts before the notice by Freeway was printed.

Per a notice presently appearing on Freeway’s website and that is shared on Twitter, 

“As all you should understand, there’s been unparalleled volatility in Foreign Currency and Cryptocurrency markets in recent occasions. Freeway has therefore made the decision to diversify its asset base to handle contact with future market fluctuations and volatility making certain the lengthy term sustainability and profitability from the Freeway Ecosystem.”

They’re saying that this allows Freeway to “keep up with the greatest degree of Supercharger simulation rewards.”

The work promises its users annual rewards as high as 43% using its Supercharger product. It states that Freeway Superchargers are “virtual simulations of popular crypto and fiat currencies” and may simply be used inside the Freeway platform. 

The ‘Risk Warning’ page states that, 

“Virtual simulation tokens are closed-loop tokens existing only inside the Freeway Platform, they can’t be traded on the secondary market, aren’t obligated to become redeemed or exchanged by Freeway and make no financial entitlements.”

The notice further stated that, as the above-mentioned process is ongoing, Freeway could be allocating capital to the underlying portfolio which, “for any temporary time” and “until our new strategies are implemented”, it won’t be buying Supercharger simulations.

It’s unclear what these new strategies are.

It added that,

“We’ll inform you if we are prepared to recommence partial Supercharger simulation purchases (buy-backs) and on the other hand as possible recommence full Supercharger simulation purchases and also on platform Freeway Token (FWT) Deposits and Buys.”

In addition, they behind the work stated they wouldn’t be commenting further when they complete the procedure.

It has been another reason for dissatisfaction inside the community, as users stated they’d prefer getting good information. One member authored on Telegram, 

“As I have that the senior leadership needs to be careful, I do not think total silence is a great choice.”

Incidents where speculated this choice may in some way be attached to the loan provider Celsius Network and it is infamous fall – possibly Celsius had given funds to Freeway, but others ignored this theory, quarrelling that something might have happened right after Celsius’ personal bankruptcy.  

An area rug-pull?

Although it is unclear the number of actual customers suspect something dubious might be happening here, commenters elsewhere appear to think so.

Popular pseudonymous Twitter user FatMan shared the withdrawal halt news on Sunday, also claiming the Freeway website appears to become scrubbing what they are called and photos of some executives.

The Wayback Machine confirms removing the ‘Team Freeway’ portion of the website, because the 8 executives it shows aren’t on the website. Nor may be the “Our partners” section.

https://web.archive.org/web/20220901120203/https://freeway.io/

Some influencers who formerly supported the work have allegedly deleted their tweets about this.  

The Freeway website claims they have processed greater than $161 million in value, which there has been greater than $37 million in annual rewards earned.

If true, it’s unclear the way the profits happen to be produced. 

Particularly, FatMan tweeted concerning the platform on Saturday too, counseling users to withdraw their immediately. 

“In my opinion they’re operating a Ponzi plan. For me, the chances are Freeway will collapse over the following couple of several weeks which all depositors will forfeit everything,” stated the consumer. 

The claim came after FatMan had observed bigger withdrawals being “delayed”. Within the publish, FatMan lists three arguments with this project as being a fraud:

  • false disclosures online,
  • shady legal structure,
  • unclear monetization strategy.

FatMan claimed that,

“Freeway were able to gather $150m+ in user deposits by supplying an aura of TradFiesque authenticity.”

Some commenters online also required problem with the “unparalleled volatility” line in Freeway’s notice, quarrelling the crypto market, following its entrance in to the bear territory, continues to be calm – for crypto, that’s. 

Bitcoin (BTC), for instance, is unchanged per day, lower 1.4% per week, or more 1.8% inside a month. It is also been buying and selling around $20,000 since late August. 

Meanwhile, the project’s native token FWT, 866th by market capital, expires greater than 9% per day and lower an astonishing 77% per week. At 8:45 UTC on Tuesday morning, it’s buying and selling at $.0016. The gold coin saw a significant crash on Saturday.

FWT 7-day cost chart:

Source: coingecko.com

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Find out more: 
Rug Pulls Were Rampant In August But Slightly Decreased On Previous Several weeks – Report
GameFi Rug Pull and Accidently Closed Exchange – Watch out for Risks in Crypto

BTC Mining Pool Poolin Suspends Wallet Withdrawals in Bid to ‘Stabilize Liquidity’
Provide Us With Our Money-back: The Problem With Custodial Wallets and also the Implications of Halting Withdrawals on Crypto’s Status

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