A few months back in web3 project, I joined an airdrop from a project called AntCore Finance.
They looked legit at first. Their website was clean. They called themselves a DEX for Aptos and Sui. They promised an airdrop for active users. I thought, why not? Free tokens are always nice.
So I checked my eligibility on their site. I got a “Market Maker” role in their Discord. That felt cool for a while.
The Airdrop Trap
Then came their farming campaign.
- Daily check-ins
- Social media tasks
- Testing their DEX on testnet
Each task would “increase my allocation”. It felt like a game. They even had this special role called “Antcore MM” that promised a multiplier for the airdrop. But to get it, I had to join their token presale.
I ended up staking some money. Not a huge amount, but enough to hurt if things went wrong.
Who Was Behind AntCore?
Turns out, the entire “team” was just one guy. He called himself Skatako. There was another admin on Discord named Zima, but many believe that was just his second account.
After the presale, they raised about $484,000 worth of Aptos and Sui tokens. They thanked everyone and said they’d launch soon.
In April, they posted that TGE was “coming soon.” Then in May, they closed their Telegram and Discord chats. They said they were preparing a roadmap to release by the end of May.
But June came. July came. Nothing.
Their website disappeared. Their Medium profile was deleted. Reddit banned their page. Socials went silent. It was over.
Someone wrote that they tried tracking the wallets used in this scam. On Aptos, out of the original 51k tokens, only 1.6k are left. A lot of USDT was moved to Binance.
What I Learned
Here’s what this experience taught me:
- Don’t trust hype. Just because influencers promote it doesn’t mean it’s safe.
- Check who’s behind the project. If there’s no real team or public profiles, that’s a big red flag.
- If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Crypto has real opportunities, but it also has traps like this. I lost money, and I’m sharing this so you don’t do the same.
Stay sharp out there. Don’t let “free money” blind you.
What’s your take on this? Share your thoughts in the comments – I’d love to hear your perspective.
If there’s something you want me to cover next, just let me know. You can follow me here on my website and my Medium to get my latest updates as soon as they drop! You can also contact me through X @AskaraJr and Linkedin
