HypervaultFi, one of the recently promoted high-yield vaults on Hyperliquid, seems to have rug-pulled its depositors.
On-chain data showed withdrawals of $3.6M, while the HypervaultFi site and social media have been wiped out. The coins moved from the HyperEVM ecosystem into Ethereum, with the funds immediately mixed on Tornado Cash. Moreover, on-chain data showed the exploiter managed to gain 752 ETH after bridging the funds.
The X account @hypervaultfi has been nuked, and the former promotional links lead to a non-existent site. The funds have been taken from active Hyperliquid traders, who nevertheless chose a vault promising higher yields.
The special vaults promised up to 76% annualized yield on stablecoins and up to 95% for HYPE liquidity. Just before crashing, the protocol had around 1,100 depositors, with $5.86M in total value locked, based on DeFiLlama data.
If the vaults were not artificially inflated, this would be among the biggest rug pulls and losses through Hyperliquid vaults. Until now, most of the rapid pool drains were the result of risky trading and aggressive whale positions.
The rug pull arrived as Hyperliquid was facing the highest levels of competition from other perp DEXs and ecosystems.
HypervaultFi did not affect the wider Hyperliquid ecosystem
HyperEVM and Hyperliquid remain safe, though still containing inherent vault risk. Previous cases of drained vaults or aggressive trading have not been compensated, as depositing into vaults is a personal risk of crypto finance.
The vault was drained of HYPE tokens, which were then moved through DeBridge and sold, as the main draining wallet reveals. The Hyperliquid community warned that the rug pull event was not a sign that the leading perpetual DEX was inherently flawed.
For now, the rug pull on the high-risk vault has not further undermined HYPE, as the token still traded around $42.53 after the attack.
Hypervault promised point farming, airdrop
Hypervault was behaving as a usual DeFi app, communicating with its supporters until the last minute. The project shared long-term plans for lowering the yield and becoming more sustainable.
HypervaultFi even promised to launch a token before the end of the year. One of the project’s founders, 0xnick, mentioned the product was still in the early stages and had a long development ahead. Users were also encouraged to use other HyperEVM protocols like Hyperlend and HyPurrFi to farm points.
Just before the rug pull, the protocol was preparing for its first official audit, creating a reputation of safety. However, analysts noted that the reported auditors did not even know about the project, raising the first red flags.
Hyperliquid’s HyperEVM has prepared to expand its ecosystem with new points and airdrop projects. The current list of projects is spread across several tiers, and point farming may contain varying levels of risk. Hypervault was not among the tracked projects, and mostly relied on its high-yield strategy.
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Source: https://www.cryptopolitan.com/hypervaultfi-suspected-rug-pull-takes-3-6m/
