![](\"https:\/\/s3.cointelegraph.com\/uploads\/2023-09\/df6701a6-97b0-4043-b406-bb4f7d547068.png\")
<\/p>\nThe Pond0X decentralized exchange (DEX) has reached more than $100 million in total trading volume, according to a September 28 social media post from its official channel. Investors previously lost over $2 million in the launch of the exchange\u2019s native token, PNDX, when the coin turned out to have a transfer function that allowed anyone to transfer it without the owner’s permission. But supporters claim these losses were not the fault of the developer.<\/p>\n
As evidence for Pond0X DEX\u2019s trading volume, the official channel cited a Dune dashboard created by user mogie, which shows over $111 million in all-time trading volume as of September 29.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The PNDX token launched on July 28. At the time, critics accused the project of being a \u201crug-pull\u201d or exit scam. At issue was the unorthodox way that the project\u2019s founder, Jeremy Cahen (also known as \u201cPauly\u201d), launched the coin. In the launch post on X (formerly Twitter), Cahen posted the URL to an app that allowed people to deposit a fixed amount of Ether (ETH) to receive a fixed amount of PNDX. He also posted the contract address for the token. <\/p>\n
In response, some investors started buying the coin on Uniswap, using its contract address to identify it, while others deposited ETH into the app to receive PNDX. The price on Uniswap quickly rose above that of the ETH needed to mint PNDX, so minters started selling their coins into the market at a profit. Critics claimed that this process transferred over $2 million of wealth from those who bought the coin on Uniswap to those who minted it using the app. The ETH deposited through the app went into a contract that contained no means of reclaiming the funds, leading critics to allege that the whole project was intended to drain funds from investors and send it to Cahen.<\/p>\n
In addition, coding experts began claiming that the token lacked a normal transfer function. Instead of only allowing the token owner to transfer it, PNDX allowed anyone to transfer tokens. This meant that each PNDX owner could lose their tokens at any moment, since any programmer could \u201csteal\u201d their PNDX using developer tools. On July 29, Solidity enthusiast and blogger sm-stack claimed they ran a test in Foundry that proved this point.<\/p>\n
However, more than two months after the project\u2019s launch, it continues to garner hundreds of supporters on Twitter, with replies to official posts routinely saying such things as \u201cFEELS GOOD MAN\u201d and \u201cBest DEX, don\u2019t see a reason for people to use other tbh.\u201d<\/p>\n
On July 29, crypto trader and blogger Antony Williams claimed to have read the app\u2019s smart contract code and determined how it works. According to him, Pond0x is \u201cfundamentally an LP Farm\u201d and not a complete scam. The app issues each user an ID that determines the user\u2019s share of a pool of Pepe (PEPE) tokens. Users can increase the Pepe rewards they are entitled to by calling the \u201cBribeforLevelUp\u201d function. To call this function, the user must deposit 0.26 ETH. This ETH is used to purchase Pepe tokens, which then get deposited into the pool to pay out rewards. The exchange also issues a \u201cScore\u201d to each user. Higher scores represent more potential rewards from trading fees collected, all other factors being held constant.<\/p>\n