According to @1HowardWu, many projects marketed as decentralized or private still permit centralized treasury control and leave on-chain traces, creating elevated rug-pull and surveillance risks for token holders, source: @1HowardWu. He argues these narratives are often used to launch tokens that enable VCs to exit on retail, increasing exit-liquidity risk around listings and unlocks, source: @1HowardWu. He states most so-called decentralized DAOs can drain their treasuries, highlighting governance and treasury-control risk that traders must price into token valuations, source: @1HowardWu. He also notes most privacy coins are easily traceable, implying weaker effective privacy and higher enforcement exposure that can impact liquidity, spreads, and risk premiums, source: @1HowardWu. Traders should demand verifiable treasury safeguards and privacy guarantees, and incorporate on-chain governance and traceability audits into position sizing and timing, source: @1HowardWu.

According to ZachXBT, Zkasino conducted a presale raising over $30 million from the community, but instead of following their project roadmap, the funds were allegedly embezzled. This triggered a law enforcement response: in late April 2024, Dutch authorities (FIOD) arrested Elham Nourzai (@Derivatives_Ape) and seized related assets. This high-profile incident has heightened investor caution across crypto presales and is likely to influence due diligence practices and risk assessments for similar token launches. Source: ZachXBT via Twitter, June 16, 2025.

According to @AltcoinGordon, PumpFun will introduce a refund feature for users who lose money from launches on their platform (Source: Twitter, June 1, 2025). This concrete move could reduce risk for traders engaging in new token launches, potentially increasing trading volumes and user trust. Market participants may see this as a step toward greater accountability among trading platforms, possibly influencing similar features across the crypto industry.