Is Pond0x DEX Trading Volume of $100M Legitimate or a Scam?

Pond0X DEX Reaches $100 Million in Trading Volume

The Pond0X decentralized exchange (DEX) has achieved a milestone, with more than $100 million in total trading volume, as per a September 28 post on its official social media channel. The launch of the exchange’s native token, PNDX, had previously resulted in an investor loss of over $2 million due to a transfer function that allowed anyone to transfer it without the owner’s permission. However, the developer was not held responsible for these losses.

The Dune dashboard created by user mogie is cited as evidence of the Pond0X DEX’s trading volume, with an all-time trading volume of over $111 million as of September 29.

PNDX token was launched on July 28. At the time, it was met with criticism as many accused the project of being a “rug-pull” or exit scam. The URL to an app that allowed people to deposit a fixed amount of Ether (ETH) to receive a fixed amount of PNDX was posted in the launch post on X (formerly Twitter). The contract address for the token was also posted.

Investors on Uniswap started buying the coin using its contract address, while others deposited ETH into the app to receive PNDX. The Uniswap price quickly rose above the ETH needed to mint PNDX, leading minters to sell their coins into the market at a profit. Critics argued that this process transferred over $2 million of wealth from those who bought the coin on Uniswap to those who minted it through the app, and that the ETH deposited through the app went into a contract with no means of reclaiming the funds. This led to the accusation that the project was created to drain funds from investors and send it to Cahen.

Exploring Web 3.0 and Pond0x

In July, coding experts expressed concern that the Pond0x token lacked a normal transfer function. Instead of just allowing the token owner to transfer it, PNDX allowed anyone to transfer tokens. This created a risk that each PNDX owner could lose their tokens, since any programmer could “steal” them using developer tools. Solidity enthusiast and blogger sm-stack even ran a test in Foundry to prove this point.

Despite the risks, the project continues to gain hundreds of supporters on Twitter. People regularly reply to official posts with comments like “FEELS GOOD MAN” and “Best DEX, don’t see a reason for people to use other tbh.”

Crypto trader and blogger Antony Williams read the app’s smart contract code and determined how it works. According to him, Pond0x is “fundamentally an LP Farm” and not a complete scam. The app issues each user an ID that determines their share of a pool of Pepe (PEPE) tokens. To increase the Pepe rewards, users must call the “BribeforLevelUp” function and deposit 0.26 ETH. This ETH is used to purchase Pepe tokens, which then get deposited into the pool to pay out rewards. Pond0x also assigns each user a “Score” that indicates their potential rewards from trading fees collected.

Williams did not say these rewards can be claimed immediately, but suggested that the developer “likely” intends to pay them out at some point in the future. He also noted that the PNDX token “is essentially valueless,” which may have been done “to avoid legal complications.”

On September 1, the project launched its decentralized exchange, and according to the Dune dashboard, it has now achieved a trading volume of over $100 million, despite the criticism from Pond0X. This indicates that some traders are still confident in the best web 3.0 stocks, programming language, books, podcasts, and websites that this DEX has to offer.