Rug Pull
By CoinGecko | Updated on Aug 12, 2021
In the English lexicon, to pull the rug out (from under someone) means to to suddenly take away important support (from someone). In the context of crypto and Decentralized Finance (DeFi), having been rug pulled means to have liquidity removed from a Decentralized Exchange (DEX) liquidity pool. This results in a sell death spiral as other liquidity provider, holder and traders panic at the loss of available liquidity for trading. Once liquidity has been drained, token holders are usually left with illiquid assets which may not be tradeable anywhere else. It is worth noting that many projects have taken measures to alleviate rug pulling risks by committing certain level of liquidity in a way that can't be removed (ie, LP Token Burn, Liquidity Locking contract..etc). However, it does not fully eliminate rug pulling risks and market participants should conduct due diligence prior to trading.
Related Terms
Shitcoin
A coin with no obvious potential value or usage.
Centralized
An organization structure wherein a small handful of actors have control over the entire network.
Proof-of-Developer (PoD)
A concept of identifying the developers of a project as a means of vouching reputation for a project
Hard Fork
It is a permanent divergence of a blockchain into two blockhains. The original blockchain does not recognize the new version.
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