How Aptos reacted to the fake APT fiasco at Korean exchange Upbit

Posted: September 25, 2023

• APT was up by more than 5% in the last 24 hours.
• Most metrics and market indicators suggested further price upticks.

Aptos [APT] recently fell victim to a fraud, which could have a negative impact on the token. Upbit, South Korea’s largest exchange, identified fake APT tokens created by scammers as real APT tokens. 

Read Aptos’ [APT] Price Prediction 2023-24

After realizing the error, the exchange took measures to minimize losses and to set things back to normal again. Though this had the potential to push APT’s price down, the opposite happened at the time of writing.

All about the Aptos fraud

It appears that during the deposit process of APT coin on Upbit, there was a failure to check the type arguments, and all same-function transfers were recognized as the same APT native token.

⚡️How did such a huge and foolish incident occur?

– It seems that during the process of reflecting $APT coin deposits, there was a failure to check the type arguments, and all same functions transfers were recognized as the same APT native token.
– Under normal circumstances,… https://t.co/CvDgTdqnGl pic.twitter.com/8gEx5YnOLH

— Definalist (@definalist) September 24, 2023

A big catastrophe was avoided because the native token had an 8 decimal, compared to the scammer’s 6 decimal. If the scam token had a decimal of 8, all users would have received $25,000 instead of $250, leading to thousands of users dumping $25,000 worth of APT. 

Upbit mentioned in its official announcement,

“Due to the maintenance of the Aptos (APT) wallet system, we are suspending the Aptos (APT) deposit and withdrawal service. We will resume deposits and withdrawals once the maintenance is complete, and we will update the service resumption through this notice.”

Aptos’ reaction is interesting

Though the episode raised alarms, APT’s response to it was not what many expected. According to CoinMarketCap, APT’s price went up by more than 5% in the last 24 hours. This was accompanied by an 800% increase in trading volume, which was a positive signal.

At the time of writing, APT was trading at $5.44 with a market capitalization of over $1.2 billion. Thanks to the price uptick, APT became the talk of the town as its social dominance surged, as did its positive sentiment.

Its 1-week price volatility also shot up, increasing the chances of a continued uptrend.

Source: Santiment

How much are 1,10,100 APTs worth today       

Aptos’ market indicators were also bullish. For instance, its Relative Strength Index (RSI) climbed over the last few days. The token’s Money Flow Index (MFI) also followed a similar increasing trend.

Additionally, APT’s MACD clearly displayed a bullish upperhand in the market, suggesting that the possibility of a continued northbound price movement was likely.

Source: TradingView