Blockchain researcher ZachXBT reported that trading platform Aqua by Solana (SOL) has reportedly performed a carpet pulling, taking away 21,77,000 SOL worth $4.65 million after receiving approval from major ecosystem partners and recently passing security audits.
Aqua positioned itself as a trading infrastructure designed to democratize access beyond “insiders or whales,” claiming to have processed over $90 million in volume with millisecond execution speeds.
The platform promised revenue sharing through its AQUA token, which would distribute trading fees among holders through buy-and-burn mechanisms and staking rewards.
Aqua conducted a public sale of their token and shared an address where investors could send SOL and receive AQUA tokens after launch. According to an announcement, the Protocol raised $1 million in 30 minutes.
Multiple approvals
The project gained credibility through partnerships with established Solana entities including Meteora, Helius, SYMMIO and Dialect, as well as through promotion from various influencers.
QuillAudits provided additional legitimacy on August 31 by congratulating the Aqua team for achieving a score of “99.7%” in their safety assessment and praising their commitment to safety.
ZachXBT’s investigation found that just hours before its report was filed, funds were “split four ways and transferred between intermediary addresses before being sent to multiple direct exchanges.”
The team disabled replies to all X-posts following the alleged exit.
Ethos Network CEO Serpin Taxt confirmed the project’s dissolution, stating that Aqua had briefly contacted his team about possible collaboration before disappearing. He added that Aqua’s team deleted the messages sent via Telegram.
‘Liquidity ladder’
The platform launched its token via what it called a “Liquidity Ladder” model, marketed as an alternative to traditional pre-sales that would guarantee “deep launch liquidity” and “fair price discovery.”
This mechanism is designed to reward early convictions while avoiding insider allocations that typically benefit institutional investors.
After the alleged carpet-pulling, Aqua published a new smart contract address, claiming that their Medium account was “unexpectedly suspended,” preventing them from publishing a detailed explanation.
The team promised to share information through alternative channels, but provided no updates at the time of writing.
Meteora co-leader Soju addressed allegations that the protocol helped a scam project gain traction.
Soju stated:
“Our privilege will be to support teams using our technology, sometimes that results in a good launch, sometimes not. I have personally put processes in place that weigh this heavily in our favor. However, I recognize that we could have better managed expectations and further tightened internal processes to prevent this.”
Despite the suspicious transactions with the money from their pre-sale address, at the time of writing there is no formal confirmation that Aqua has conducted a carpet pull.