An honest review of our experience with RIPS, the gamified onchain asset discovery platform. It started fun and promising, but ended in a rug pull drama and 90% losses. Read the full analysis.

Have you ever tried an app that you instantly clicked with and got hooked on from the very first use? That's exactly how we felt when we first tried RIPS on Farcaster.

RIPS defined itself as "a gamified discovery platform for onchain assets." Imagine opening digital card packs like a trading card game, but each card is backed by real ERC-20 tokens from verified projects. Its UI/UX was elegant, the animations were smooth, and the thrill of "ripping" open a pack was incredibly addictive.

In the beginning, everything seemed perfect. It had immense potential to be a pioneer in discovering new communities and coins in a fun way.

1. Free Packs: Users could open free packs to get a feel for the game.

2. Paid Packs (The Real Game): This was the core loop. To earn more points, you had to buy paid packs, ranging from $1 to $100 each.

This is where the drama started, based on our personal experience and that of many other users.

Even though we occasionally made a profit (we only profited once—$70—out of 60+ packs), the value of the tokens inside was consistently lower than the pack's price. Buying a $100 pack often yielded only $80-$85 worth of tokens. We knew we were at a loss, but our minds were hypnotized by POINTS.

We were lured by the promise of the Season 1 Airdrop Reward worth 3 BILLION tokens. Chasing this huge hope, we kept spending money, ignoring the accumulating minor losses.

In total, we spent around $230 (including that $70 profit which was immediately funneled back into the system) to earn 200,000 RIPS points.

The biggest issue? They were not transparent about the points-to-token conversion rate. This was the first red flag we should have heeded. The value of our points was entirely in their hands, and it could easily be manipulated.

When the $RIPS token finally launched, our hopes soared. Volume and price pumped, but shortly after, it crashed from a $3 Million Market Cap to just $800k!

Many holders were immediately down more than 70%. At this point, strong suspicions of insider trading began to emerge. Was the team itself selling at the peak?

The team promised the airdrop would be distributed 7 days after listing. We waited patiently, hoping to recoup some of our costs.

When the allocation announcement came, we were already suspicious. The calculations didn't match community expectations or the money spent. Even at the $800k MC, we had accepted a 50-70% loss. We made peace with it, thinking, "It's okay, we spent $230, maybe we'll get $75 back."

But RIPS had its worst surprise in store.

On the 7th day, just as the airdrop was to be distributed, another drama unfolded. The $RIPS token price plummeted suddenly again! The team blamed sniper bots that bought tokens at the moment of distribution.

However, the blockchain transaction history doesn't lie. It was clear that the official RIPS wallets themselves were the ones dumping massive amounts of tokens right before and during the airdrop distribution!

This was the final blow. This action destroyed the token's value and left the loyal community waiting for their airdrop with nothing but worthless scraps.

The final result? From our initial investment of $230, plus thousands of dollars in transaction volume we provided to the protocol, the airdrop we received was worth only $28. Our final loss was nearly 95%! Imagine, almost every user, holder, and trader suffered a similar fate.

We deeply, deeply regret this entire experience. RIPS had all the ingredients for success: a brilliant concept, flawless UI/UX execution, and an enthusiastic community.

Their potential was destroyed not by a bad idea, but by a team that was untrustworthy, greedy, and hungry for quick money. They sacrificed the trust of thousands of users who supported them for short-term gain.

With this move, they didn't just destroy the $RIPS project; they destroyed their own reputation within the crypto ecosystem. Trust is everything, and once broken, it is very hard to rebuild.

1. Transparency is key. If the reward mechanics are unclear, be wary!

2. Overly tempting airdrop promises are often bait.

3. Always verify on-chain. Don't trust their words; look at the transaction history yourself.

4. Trust, but verify. Believe in a protocol's potential, but always do your own deep research on the team and their track record.

RIPS was an expensive and painful lesson. A stark reminder that in the crypto world promising a degen paradise, what you sometimes get is... hell.