This project first came to my attention after it was listed and verified on MuesliSwap. It does have a CoinMarketCap page and it is listed on a couple of other 2nd and 3rd tier exchanges. What got me interested in it initially was the fact that $RAVE (the native token of the ecosystem) price on MuesliSwap was around half the price on the other exchanges.
How fortunate of me to find this arbitrage gem, all I had to do now was load up on Muesli and flip on the other exchanges. Sounds simple enough.
Rinse.
Repeat.
Millionaire.
Only problem was, there were no buyers around. Only sellers. This got my bulls##t detector slowly beeping. After a quick google search, I found dozens of threads on reddit, Twitter and Cardano forums about them being a scam... Are these just our people FUDDING the f##k out of $RAVE? Or is there something more to this...
Let's have a closer look at what's cooking here.
First peek in and things are starting to get murky. Their ISPO page appears to be a complete RIPOFF of Genius Yield's. Or maybe they used the same design team as some people rightfully suggested. Maybe...
Their "demo" is a RIPOFF of ErgoDEX as some people already pointed this out. Check it out. Same design team and the same instruction guide? I mean, at least change a bloody word or two. Getting a little lazy with this one...
Users are also pointing out that their GitHub repository is almost empty. The only entries seem to be forked from IOHK. In addition, there is no evidence of any technical knowledge or skills on the part of their team. There are however a bunch of marketing buzzwords. I mean, a lot of marketing buzzwords.
A lot of their main statements are outright lies. This is never a good sign, right? They claim to be the first this and the first that. Not true. This also happens on their main page.
Their documentation page offers no real insight into the project at all, it just seems to be focused on explaining how to buy their coin and their NFTs. Oh yes, they are also selling NFTs at 50₳ a pop. Go figure.
Their team is anonymous and the explanation looks like the cover letters I was writing applying for jobs when I was 20.
Now, I don't have a problem with anonymity. I can understand and appreciate them wanting to be anonymous. They should however be aware that honesty and transparency into the project are paramount in this case. Neither is offered.
Their audits page is joke. Literally, a joke.
They seem to have some traction due to some articles being published online. They are also riding hard the DEX HYPE train and the NFT HYPE train.
Another thing that I've noticed is that people started to see through the smoke and used the #ravendex hashtag on twitter to signal the "scam". At the moment this hashtag is being flooded by influencers, some of them only posting about Ravendex exclusively. These account have quite a big following and they seem to be genuine as they are followed by PMs and other high profile personas.
A majority of the influencers seem to be from Kenya.
As far as I can find, there is no partnership between them and WMT. They just reserved an Earth Node from them and the influencers started promoting it as a "strategic partnership".
They are constantly retweeting it.
I am not in the position to tell you what to do with your own money and where to invest it. For me this projects has all the hallmarks of a scam and then some.
I highly encourage everyone to do their own research and make sure all their concerns are addressed before putting money into anything. Never put in more money than you can afford to lose.
How would all this be possible? My guess is that this is not the first time they are doing this. They are just getting better at it.
But it's still lazy. Anyone spending 10 minutes in the #ravendex hashtag on twitter should be at least a little sceptical of what is being promised and how it is promoted. At best, this is a case of black hat marketing.
Also, check out Dr. Fake! He published a detailed medium article about how the scam "cartels" operate right about when I did mine.
Good timing.