Crypto gaming platform ZKasino is once again in the spotlight after returning to the community to announce refunds to affected users. The now-disgraced platform made headlines more than a month ago after allegedly stealing $33 million from investors.
ZKasino returns to repay investors
On Tuesday, ZKasino announced a 72-hour redemption window for affected investors to get their “robust” funds back. In the announcement, the founder of the crypto platform, Derivatives Ape, revealed that Bridgers have until Friday, May 31 at 2:00 p.m. UTC to register and claim their funds.
According to job, investors who opted out of the ZKAS conversion can initiate the two-step process to replenish their Ether (ETH). Bridgers must deposit the first batch of ZKAS bridge rewards they received into a smart contract controlled by ZKasino to register.
Excerpt from ZKasino’s announcement. Source: Medium
Additionally, investors lose “the remaining 14 months of ZKAS release” by registering. After the May 31 deadline, the option to register for the Bridge back process will be closed and ZKAS deposits will be discontinued.
After the registration and data collection windows, the claims portal will be opened after data verification. As a result, Bridgers can claim their ETH at a 1:1 ratio from a new audited bridge. contract on the Ethereum mainnet.
The crypto community tired of the project
The announcement was poorly received, as the founder's X account was used to share the news instead of the project's official channels. It is worth noting that the official ZKasino X account went silent in late April as sweepstakes allegations gained strength.
As a result, members of the community highlighted the now tarnished reputation of the platform and its founder. Many investors feared the refund process was another scam, doubting the legitimacy of the links, while others demanded the crypto project return their ETH.
An user declared, “I don’t trust this… maybe you have a plan to empty our wallet… just return our ETH.” Another other investor request“Is it safe? Have developers checked the code?”
Apparently, many users who tried the process were unable to connect their wallets or had problems registering, which also raised doubts. Furthermore, several answers interrogates the reason for the short repayment period since it took more than a month to start the process.
As reported by Bitcoinist, Dutch authorities have arrested a 26-year-old man as part of an investigation into the alleged ZKasino rug pulling scam. After days of uncertainty, investors confirmed their suspicions when the crypto project started showing serious and concerning activity.
The bridge became inaccessible due to “maintenance” and remained out of service for several days before being “operational again”. However, after April 24, the platform's X account stopped posting.
Since then, only its founder, who is believed to be the man arrested by the Dutch authorities, has informed investors. In a May 9 post, he declared that Binance and the Tax Information and Investigation Service of the Netherlands (FIOD) were spreading “disinformation” about the project.
Additionally, Derivatives Ape claimed that the gaming platform did not commit “so-called 'exit scam' or 'rug pull'” and assured users that the project's ETH was “safe and secure.” secured by them in the ZKasino multisig wallet.”
Nonetheless, the ZKasino founder apparently has a questionable track record when it comes to crypto failure. projects and regarding practices including its involvement in rival crypto exchange ZigZag and DeFi protocol Syncus.
Ultimately, the project appears to have lost all credibility within the crypto community, as many consider it's “up there with the absolute worst we have to offer.”
ETH is trading at $3,814 in the three-day chart. Source: ETHUSDT on TradingView
Featured image from Unsplash.com, chart from TradingView.com