Scam tokens associated with UAE
The TokenScope Team took a brief look on tokens that appeared on the cryptocurrency market and were promoted as linked with or created in the UAE. Actually, the binding of the tokens to this country is very conditional and is used to give these projects the appearance of serious and promising. In fact, these coins are created by foreign, non-UAE, commercial structures, mainly in Eastern Europe and Asia.
This country binding of tokens was used only as a certain quality stamp, attracting potential customers. The purpose of the attackers is to “hype” and to attract the maximum possible number of the investors, with subsequent closing of the project at its peak along with the theft of depositors' funds.
Let's take a closer look at these tokens for their risk component and reliability:
The largest and most widely known of such scam tokens was DubaiCoin (DBIX), a project created in 2017.
- It was traded on HitBTC, Cryptopia, and livecoin exchanges;
- The official website is https://www.arabianchain.org/;
- The company creator is ArabianChain Technology;
- CEO - Mohammed Alsehli;
- The website address is Technohub 2, Dubai Silicon Oasis Dubai, United Arab Emirates. DBIX was traded on the exchange until May 2021. The coin's latest available value record: $0.27. 24-hour trading volume: $124 450. Peak of its capitalization was $1 150 000.
As can be seen from the graph, the price of the coin twice increased 100 times in one day – on July 7, 2017, reaching $ 41, and on January 13, 2018, reaching $ 33. Subsequently, the price collapsed 10 times or more.
The last rise and sharp fall was observed on May 27, 2021, when an aggressive advertising campaign was carried out, and PR Newswire published fake news about the legality of DBIX, as well as that traders have the opportunity to buy tokens using the Dub-pay website (now this news has been deleted). On this news, the coin grew 1000 times on the HitBTC exchange, after which an exit-scam occurred.
The day after the events described above, Dubai Media Office published a denial on Twitter “Dubai Coin cryptocurrency was never approved by any official authority”.
Dubai Electronic Security Center also made a statement that DBIX was not authorized by any official authority, and the website advertising the coin is an unlicensed site designed to phish email addresses, passwords and phone numbers of users.
United Emirate Decentralized Coin (UEDC) is the next most popular. The token was created in April 2021, with transactions through November 2021.
- The Web site is https://unitedemiratedecentralizedcoin.com/;
- Pre-launch price $0.31;
- Issued volume 20 000 000;
- Presale issue volume 12 000 000;
- Algorithm: BEP-20 (Binance Smart Chain);
- Reserved volume 8 000 000.
Smart contract 0xf0b6e29c429bb8e1448340f0776be933805344e (number of users holding the coin is 5 437, number of transactions for the entire period is 73 831, contract created on April 09, 2021).
An analysis of the dynamics shows that the explosive growth in the value of UEDC against the background of its active advertising and promotion in November 2021 was replaced by a predicted collapse, as a result of which the value of the coin fell several times, which was accompanied by a subsequent loss of activity until now.
The next token that worth paying attention to is United Emirate Coin (UEC), created in February 2020, current contract from April 2022.
- Web site https://unitedemiratecoin.net/;
- ERC-20 algorithm;
- Pre-launch price $0.02;
- Issued volume 20 000 000;
- Outstanding volume 9 500 000;
- Airdrop volume 100 000.
Contract: 0x52d04a0a7f3D79880a89CC3Ca5De294862f6a0D9 (31 coin holders, total amount of transactions is 57, was created on April 8, 2022), previous contract 0x40cf9f8b652efe6bf9d5cfcdb12e3a8a8b4c2c3 (336 coin holders, 799 transactions in total, was created on February 5, 2020).
New Contract Dynamics:
An analysis of the activity of the UEC coin created in February 2020 shows that in July 2020 there was a sharp and active increase in the value of the coin, as a result of active pump and advertising. After a while, the coin dropped in price almost 10 times. A new wave of activity occurs during the creation of a new contract - April 2022.
EMIRATES COIN (UAE) is another token that was traded on the PANCAKESWAP exchange.
- Issued volume 20 000 000;
- Token type BEP-20;
- Launch date September 22, 2021.
Contract 0x84eefbfafbe0943a75265883d3c5c5c62da6fca6 (15 owners, 24 transactions during the entire period, created on September 22, 2021).
The dynamics of the coin shows that after its creation in September 2021, its value fell a few weeks after its release – on October 4 of the same year. The token lasted until January 20, 2022 with no changes in value.
Arabic Cash (ABIC).
- Website: https://arabic.cash/ ;
- The coin was traded on the CoinTiger exchange and PANCAKESWAP;
- Current price: $0.0146.
Contract 0x4823A096382f4Fa583b55d563afb9F9a58C72FC0 (number of coin holders is 2 391, total number of transactions for the entire period is 29 326, contract created on March 25, 2021).
Analysis of the dynamics of the ABIC coin shows that the explosive growth of its value occurred against the background of active advertising and promotion in November 2021. Then there was a predicted collapse, as a result of which the coin fell several times and is practically inactive to date.
Most of the fake coins mentioned have the appearance of a connection with the UAE, in fact having nothing to do with the Emirates and their official bodies. Such "projects", in addition to potential financial damage to attracted investors, undoubtedly carry reputational risks for the jurisdiction with which they are associated, in this case the UAE.
It is possible to prevent such consequences by using the token verification mechanisms offered by the TokenScope service – checking against 100+ sources and databases, researching the technological parameters of a smart contract, analyzing suspicious transactions - as a result, assessing the risk of the token.
