Astrology NFT project ‘Lucky Star Currency’ rugged for over $1m – Certik
The astrology-themed NFT project Lucky Star Currency (LSC) has performed an exit scam for over $1 million, according to an October 9 report from blockchain security firm Certik.
The project’s deployer account called the ‘withdrawToken’ function on both the NFTMerge and AdwardCenter contracts, removing over $1 million in LSC from them. These tokens were then swapped for Binance USD (BUSD) stablecoin and sent to another account.
We can confirm an exit scam on @AstrAstrol75591 LSC token
Bsc: 0x2b3559c3DBdB294cbb71f2B30a693F4C6be6132d
EOA 0x9Ef withdrew LSC tokens from the AwardCenter contract. Tokens were then sold for $1.1mhttps://t.co/sy7vFfqhf5
— CertiK Alert (@CertiKAlert) October 9, 2023
Lucky Star Currency is a project that focuses on NFTs and claims to be founded by astrologists. Its contracts include an Award Center and NFT Marketplace. It is marketed towards the Chinese crypto investment market. The team promotes the project on X (formerly Twitter) under the username @AstrAstrol75591. It also has a Telegram channel. As of October 9, the project’s website and user interface are offline.
Before the alleged rug, Lucky Star Currency was heavily promoted on the Chinese news app Toutiao and Q&A platform Zhihu.
At approximately 02:52 a.m. UTC, BNB Smart Chain address 0x9Ef72Ee68a7c841986A0C60e0FDbAE4e27446Deb removed over 1.6 million LSC from the AwardCenter contract for Lucky Star Currency. In a second transaction, an additional 1.4 million LSC was drained from the project’s NFTMerge contract. After draining funds, the attacker swapped them for over $1 million in BUSD via Pancake swap and then sent them to account 0x23f8c805306Bf27AB8bf3cEbEce4B778acfFd896. This account has been receiving BUSD from various sources for the past 82 days, implying that there may be more than one scam depositing funds to it.
According to Certik, the contracts that were drained have been listed on Telegram as the project’s official contracts.
In addition, blockchain data shows that the attacking account is the deployer for the AwardCenter contract.
Related: Chinese DeFi protocol WDZD Swap exploited for $1.1M: CertiK
The company that promoted the project claimed to have an office in Shenzen City, China.
Rug-pulls from Chinese projects have become a recurring problem in the Web3 space. Running a centralized cryptocurrency exchange is illegal in the country. Because of this, users who deposit to a Chinese protocol that has centralized elements may risk having their funds confiscated by police.
Over $100 million were lost in July when the China-based Multichain protocol drained all of its users’ funds into an attacker’s account. The team alleges that police have arrested their CEO, but victims still search for answers as to what happened to their funds and how they can be reimbursed.
Politics
Transport Secretary Louise Haigh downplays risk of empty shelves if farmers strike over inheritance tax
Shelves will not be left empty this winter if farmers go on strike over tax changes, a cabinet minister has said.
Louise Haigh, the transport secretary, said the government would be setting out contingency plans to ensure food security is not compromised if farmers decide to protest.
Farmers across England and Wales have expressed anger that farms will no longer get 100% relief on inheritance tax, as laid out in Rachel Reeves’s budget last month.
Welsh campaign group Enough is Enough has called for a national strike among British farmers to stop producing food until the decision to impose inheritance tax on farms is reversed, while others also contemplate industrial action.
At the weekend the group held a protest in Llandudno, North Wales, where Sir Keir Starmer was giving his first speech as prime minister to the Welsh Labour conference.
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Asked by Trevor Phillips if she was concerned at the prospect that shelves could be empty of food this winter, Ms Haigh replied: “No, we think we put forward food security really as a priority, and we’ll work with farmers and the supply chain in order to ensure that.
“The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will be setting out plans for the winter and setting out – as business as usual – contingency plans and ensuring that food security is treated as the priority it deserves to be.”
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From April 2026, farms worth more than £1m will face an inheritance tax rate of 20%, rather than the standard 40% applied to other land and property.
However, farmers – who previously did not have to pay any inheritance tax – argue the change will mean higher food prices, lower food production and having to sell off land to pay.
Transport Secretary Louise Haigh
Tom Bradshaw, the president of the National Farmers Union, said he had “never seen the united sense of anger that there is in this industry today”.
“I don’t for one moment condone that anyone will stop supplying the supermarkets,” he said.
“We saw during the COVID crisis that those unable to get their food were often either the very most vulnerable, or those that have been working long hours in hospitals and nurses – that is something we do not want to see again.”
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Farmers ‘betrayed’ over tax change
Explaining why the tax changes were so unpopular, he said food production margins were “so low”, and “any liquid cash that’s been available has been reinvested in farm businesses” for the future.
“One of the immediate changes is that farms are going to have to start putting money into their pensions, which many haven’t previously done,” he said.
“They’re going to have to have life insurance policies in case of a sudden death. And unfortunately, that was cash that would previously have been invested in producing the country’s food for the future.”
Sir Keir has staunchly defended the measure, saying it will not affect small farms and is aimed at targeting wealthy landowners who buy up farmland to avoid paying inheritance tax.
However, the Conservatives have argued the changes amount to a “war on farmers” and have begun a campaign targeting the prime minister as a “farmer harmer”.
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‘Farmers’ livelihoods are threatened’
Speaking to Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, shadow home secretary Chris Philp said he was happy with farmers protesting against the budget – as long as their methods and tactics were “lawful”.
“What the Labour government has done to farmers is absolutely shocking,” he said.
“These are farmers that, you know, they’re not well off particularly, they’re often actually struggling to make ends meet because farming is not very profitable these days. And of course, we rely on farmers for our food security.
Addressing the possible protests, Mr Philp said: “I think people have a right to protest, and obviously we respect the right to protest within the law, and it’s up to parliament to set where the law sits.
“So I think providing they’re behaving lawfully, legally, then they do have a right to protest.”
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Next week farmers are expected to hold a mass protest of about 20,000 people in Westminster against the inheritance tax changes.
After Elon Musk announced the government agency with the same acronym as Dogecoin’s ticker, the crypto token soared to a yearly high of $0.39.
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