{"investigation":{"slug":"ethtrustfund","entity_name":"ETHTrustFund","trust_score":2,"severity_base":null,"score_modifier":0,"confidence":0.88,"status":"published","content_type":"investigation","summary":"ETHTrustFund (ticker: ETF) was a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) built on Coinbase's Base layer-2 network that marketed itself as an OHM (Olympus DAO) fork and decentralized crypto hedge fund. On July 20, 2024, the pseudonymous lead developer known only as 'Peng' drained approximately 607 ETH (worth ~$2.1–2.2 million) from the project treasury and laundered the funds through the privacy protocols Tornado Cash and Railgun before disappearing entirely. ZachXBT has flagged this entity as a fraudulent project. The project's website, Twitter, and Telegram accounts were permanently deleted following the exit.","sections":[{"content":"ETHTrustFund launched in March 2024 on Coinbase's Base layer-2 Ethereum blockchain. The $ETF token went live on Uniswap V3 on March 14, 2024. The project described itself as a 'Treasury-Backed Currency Protocol' and a decentralized hedge fund operating through a tri-phased growth model, with the long-term goal of becoming a fully on-chain hedge fund. It positioned itself explicitly as a fork of Olympus DAO (OHM), a protocol known for its rebasing staking mechanism and protocol-owned liquidity model. ETHTrustFund marketed itself with the tagline 'Highest Return Yielding ETF On Earth,' capitalizing on community interest in Base network projects, the ETF investment narrative, and meme culture. The token contract address on Base is 0x6cF727D9089a07E44607BeA30F5E687983CA6aA1.","heading":"Project Overview","sources":[{"url":"https://rekt.news/ethtrustfund-rekt","name":"rekt.news","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/eth-trust-fund/","name":"coinmarketcap.com","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://basescan.org/token/0x6cF727D9089a07E44607BeA30F5E687983CA6aA1","name":"basescan.org","type":"other","credibility":3}],"severity":"medium"},{"content":"On July 20, 2024, the ETHTrustFund lead developer — known pseudonymously only as 'Peng' — executed what blockchain security researchers characterize as a rug pull exit scam. The theft unfolded in two separate transactions: the first transferred approximately 3.2 million BRETT tokens (valued at ~$453,000) from the treasury, and the second, executed roughly 9.5 hours later, transferred 477 ETH (valued at approximately $1.65 million). In total, the developer siphoned 607 ETH worth approximately $2.1 to $2.2 million at the time of the theft. The deployer wallet identified on-chain is 0xF259F01C40C211D63Ab75A6d2B108B364EFaB780, the treasury address is 0xbfDB66a6783a6Dc757f539139c68BED75EB491c8, and the attacker's destination wallet is 0x374f4BD39aD211e67e0f8Cb8Ebf1b4F6Ac3059aD. Following the transfers, 'Peng' permanently deleted the project's Telegram group, Twitter/X account, and website. The incident was first publicly disclosed by crypto community researcher Octoshi on July 21, 2024, and further reported by Ogle of glue.net, who filed a report with ChainAbuse.","heading":"Rug Pull — July 2024","sources":[{"url":"https://rekt.news/ethtrustfund-rekt","name":"rekt.news","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://crypto.news/ethtrustfund-rug-pulls-on-base-leading-to-2m-in-investor-losses/","name":"crypto.news","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com/single/ethtrustfund-rug-pull","name":"web3isgoinggreat.com","type":"other","credibility":3}],"severity":"medium"},{"content":"After draining the treasury, the threat actor bridged stolen funds from Base to the Ethereum mainnet and laundered them through two privacy protocols. According to blockchain security firm PeckShield, the funds were distributed as follows: 200 ETH was sent to Railgun at approximately 13:27 UTC; two separate transfers of 200 ETH each were routed through Tornado Cash; and an additional 56.9 ETH was transferred back to Railgun. The use of Tornado Cash is notable given that the U.S. Treasury's OFAC sanctioned Tornado Cash in August 2022, making its use by U.S.-linked entities potentially illegal. PeckShield confirmed the laundering activity via an alert posted on July 22, 2024.","heading":"Fund Laundering via Tornado Cash and Railgun","sources":[{"url":"https://rekt.news/ethtrustfund-rekt","name":"rekt.news","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://crypto.news/ethtrustfund-rug-pulls-on-base-leading-to-2m-in-investor-losses/","name":"crypto.news","type":"other","credibility":3}],"severity":"medium"},{"content":"According to community members and reporters, lead developer 'Peng' had become unresponsive on Telegram as early as April 2024 — roughly three months before the rug pull. Despite this prolonged silence, funds remained in the treasury and the project's public presence was not formally wound down, apparently allowing the developer to maintain an outward facade of operation while preparing an exit. The $ETF token had previously experienced a sharp price decline of approximately 90% within one week of its March 2024 launch, a pattern consistent with early pump-and-dump dynamics that can precede a full rug pull. These signals were not widely amplified in public forums before the July exit.","heading":"Pre-Exit Warning Signs","sources":[{"url":"https://rekt.news/ethtrustfund-rekt","name":"rekt.news","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://crypto.news/ethtrustfund-rug-pulls-on-base-leading-to-2m-in-investor-losses/","name":"crypto.news","type":"other","credibility":3}],"severity":"medium"},{"content":"ZachXBT — a pseudonymous blockchain investigator known for forensic research into crypto fraud — has flagged ETHTrustFund as a fraudulent entity. ZachXBT joined Paradigm as an incident response advisor in February 2025 and has been credited with helping recover more than $350 million for victims of hacks and scams. The precise nature and content of ZachXBT's specific flag against ETHTrustFund has not been independently verifiable from publicly archived posts at this time; the claim is presented here as reported by AVOID.NET intake. The underlying rug pull incident itself has been confirmed by multiple Tier 1 and Tier 2 sources independent of any ZachXBT flag.","heading":"ZachXBT Flag","sources":[{"url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZachXBT","name":"en.wikipedia.org","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://rekt.news/ethtrustfund-rekt","name":"rekt.news","type":"other","credibility":3}],"severity":"medium"},{"content":"The sole identified developer of ETHTrustFund is known only by the pseudonym 'Peng.' No real name, identity, or jurisdiction has been publicly confirmed. The absence of any doxxing or KYC process is consistent with the project's anonymous exit. No law enforcement action, regulatory filing, or legal proceeding has been publicly reported against any individual in connection with this theft as of the time of this investigation.","heading":"Developer Anonymity and Accountability","sources":[{"url":"https://rekt.news/ethtrustfund-rekt","name":"rekt.news","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://crypto.news/ethtrustfund-rug-pulls-on-base-leading-to-2m-in-investor-losses/","name":"crypto.news","type":"other","credibility":3}],"severity":"medium"},{"content":"The $ETF token contract (0x6cF727D9089a07E44607BeA30F5E687983CA6aA1) remains queryable on BaseScan but the underlying project has no active development, website, or community presence. The token experienced a 90% price decline within one week of its March 2024 launch, followed by apparent price stabilization before the July 2024 exit. CoinMarketCap lists the token as 'ETH Trust Fund (ETF)' but the project is defunct. Investors who held $ETF at the time of the rug pull were left with effectively worthless tokens.","heading":"Market and Token Status","sources":[{"url":"https://basescan.org/token/0x6cF727D9089a07E44607BeA30F5E687983CA6aA1","name":"basescan.org","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/eth-trust-fund/","name":"coinmarketcap.com","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com/single/ethtrustfund-rug-pull","name":"web3isgoinggreat.com","type":"other","credibility":3}],"severity":"medium"}],"timeline":[{"date":"2024-03-14","event":"$ETF token launched on Uniswap V3 on Base network at 12pm ET; token pumped then declined approximately 90% within one week of launch.","source":""},{"date":"2024-04","event":"Lead developer 'Peng' allegedly went silent on Telegram, ceasing to respond to community messages approximately three months before the rug pull.","source":"","date_original":"2024-04-01"},{"date":"2024-07-20","event":"Developer executed rug pull in two transactions: first transferring ~3.2 million BRETT tokens (~$453,000), then ~477 ETH (~$1.65 million) approximately 9.5 hours later. Total: ~607 ETH (~$2.1–2.2 million). Funds bridged to Ethereum mainnet and routed through Tornado Cash and Railgun.","source":""},{"date":"2024-07-21","event":"Crypto community researcher Octoshi publicly disclosed the suspicious treasury transfers and disappearance of the developer on social media.","source":""},{"date":"2024-07-22","event":"Blockchain security firm PeckShield confirmed the rug pull via an on-chain alert. Ogle (glue.net) filed a report on ChainAbuse. Rekt News published a full incident report.","source":""}],"sources_used":[{"url":"https://rekt.news/ethtrustfund-rekt","name":"rekt.news","type":"other","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260724211721/https://rekt.news/ethtrustfund-rekt","credibility":3,"archive_timestamp":"2026-07-24T21:17:21+00:00"},{"url":"https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/eth-trust-fund/","name":"coinmarketcap.com","type":"other","archive_url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260829125807/https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/eth-trust-fund/","credibility":3,"archive_timestamp":"2026-08-29T12:58:07+00:00"},{"url":"https://basescan.org/token/0x6cF727D9089a07E44607BeA30F5E687983CA6aA1","name":"basescan.org","type":"other","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260212161403/https://basescan.org/token/0x6cf727d9089a07e44607bea30f5e687983ca6aa1","credibility":3,"archive_timestamp":"2026-02-12T16:14:03+00:00"},{"url":"https://crypto.news/ethtrustfund-rug-pulls-on-base-leading-to-2m-in-investor-losses/","name":"crypto.news","type":"other","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20250915040358/https://crypto.news/ethtrustfund-rug-pulls-on-base-leading-to-2m-in-investor-losses/","credibility":3,"archive_timestamp":"2025-09-15T04:03:58+00:00"},{"url":"https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com/single/ethtrustfund-rug-pull","name":"web3isgoinggreat.com","type":"other","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260812203400/https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com/single/ethtrustfund-rug-pull","credibility":3,"archive_timestamp":"2026-08-12T20:34:00+00:00"},{"url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZachXBT","name":"en.wikipedia.org","type":"other","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260711020137/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZachXBT","credibility":3,"archive_timestamp":"2026-07-11T02:01:37+00:00"}],"source_tags":["defillama"],"addresses":[],"reviewed":false,"reviewed_by":null,"model_used":"claude-sonnet-4-6","created_at":"2026-05-04T02:54:30.699973+00:00","updated_at":"2026-08-29T15:48:23.103999+00:00"}}