SharkTron Exit Scam

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SharkTron

An anonymous developer created SharkTron, a liquidity mining protocol on the Tron network.

The developer ultimately made off with $10m of investors funds which were invested on the platform. While some of the funds were frozen, it does not appear that investors have been returned a significant portion.

This is a global/international case not involving a specific country.

About SharkTron

"SharkTron [was] a DeFi platform featuring liquidity mining on Tron." "Sharktron, which issued a press release about the decentralized finance (defi) project in October, claims the project’s “main task is to create a complete platform autonomy with a gradual transition to self-management by community members.”"

"It was launched by an anonymous developer known under the nickname Daniel Wood. According to the official press release, published by Bitcoin.com, the project is focused on creating a completely autonomous platform with the gradual transition to self-governance by the community members. The developer invited TRX users to stake their coins in the exchange SHARK (SRX), the native tokens of the platform."

"Hello, sharks! The start of our new service went great! SharkInvest attracted over $ 1,000,000 investments in the first day. We thank you for your warm support and participation in the platform development. This is just the beginning! Join us and earn more SRX, TTH and TRX!"

"According to one report, Twitter users repeatedly warned Sun about the fraudulent nature of the Sharktron project. However, the report says Sun “ignored the red flags.” The Sharktron protocol is listed on another Sun creation, the Justswap decentralized exchange (DEXs)." "Twitter is bubbling with comments that customers warned Tron's creator of the project's fraudulent nature and even asked him to block the anonymous developer's wallet. However, Sun ignored the red flags."

"SharkTron had an incident according to a statement Tron Foundation issued on Nov. 9." "[T]he DeFi project SharkTron appeared to have conducted an exit scam with $10 million in user funds, closing its website and leaving users in the dark." "Some sources report a loss of $260 million of users’ assets from several platforms associated with SharkTron, including Shark Invest and Shark Dice. Some users attach screenshots of wallets, which suffered losses."

"[Tron Foudation] advised users to file reports to the police in the meantime." "A portion of the funds has been frozen on Binance. If you were a victim in this case, please file a police report and work with law enforcement to seek recovery." "Tron Foundation promised to track down and freeze the remainder of the funds."

This is a global/international case not involving a specific country.

The background of the exchange platform, service, or individuals involved, as it would have been seen or understood at the time of the events.

Include:

• Known history of when and how the service was started.
• What problems does the company or service claim to solve?
• What marketing materials were used by the firm or business?
• Audits performed, and excerpts that may have been included.
• Business registration documents shown (fake or legitimate).
• How were people recruited to participate?
• Public warnings and announcements prior to the event.

Don't Include:

• Any wording which directly states or implies that the business is/was illegitimate, or that a vulnerability existed.
• Anything that wasn't reasonably knowable at the time of the event.

There could be more than one section here. If the same platform is involved with multiple incidents, then it can be linked to a main article page.

The Reality

This sections is included if a case involved deception or information that was unknown at the time. Examples include:

• When the service was actually started (if different than the "official story").
• Who actually ran a service and their own personal history.
• How the service was structured behind the scenes. (For example, there was no "trading bot".)
• Details of what audits reported and how vulnerabilities were missed during auditing.

What Happened

The specific events of the loss and how it came about. What actually happened to cause the loss and some of the events leading up to it.

Key Event Timeline - SharkTron Exit Scam

Date	Event	Description
November 9th, 2020	Main Event	Expand this into a brief description of what happened and the impact. If multiple lines are necessary, add them here.

Technical Details

This section includes specific detailed technical analysis of any security breaches which happened. What specific software vulnerabilities contributed to the problem and how were they exploited?

Total Amount Lost

The total amount lost has been estimated at $10,000,000 USD.

How much was lost and how was it calculated? If there are conflicting reports, which are accurate and where does the discrepancy lie?

Immediate Reactions

How did the various parties involved (firm, platform, management, and/or affected individual(s)) deal with the events? Were services shut down? Were announcements made? Were groups formed?

Ultimate Outcome

What was the end result? Was any investigation done? Were any individuals prosecuted? Was there a lawsuit? Was any tracing done?

Total Amount Recovered

There do not appear to have been any funds recovered in this case.

What funds were recovered? What funds were reimbursed for those affected users?

Ongoing Developments

What parts of this case are still remaining to be concluded?

General Prevention Policies

This is part of why having reasonable and innovation-supporting regulations is so important. It can avoid situations where anonymous developers are launching projects to steal users funds, and limit platforms to known and reputable individuals.

Individual Prevention Policies

No specific policies for individual prevention have yet been identified in this case.

For the full list of how to protect your funds as an individual, check our Prevention Policies for Individuals guide.

Platform Prevention Policies

Policies for platforms to take to prevent this situation have not yet been selected in this case.

For the full list of how to protect your funds as a financial service, check our Prevention Policies for Platforms guide.

Regulatory Prevention Policies

No specific regulatory policies have yet been identified in this case.

For the full list of regulatory policies that can prevent loss, check our Prevention Policies for Regulators guide.