TL;DR:
- South Korea arrested five people over the CatFi rugpull, a Solana memecoin launched on Pump.fun in early 2025.
- The case marks the first application of the Virtual Asset User Protection Act to a rugpull scheme executed on a DEX.
- Suspects obtained profits of 400 million won. 256 investors reported combined losses of 900 million won.
The Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Office indicted five people over the rugpull of the CatFi memecoin, based on Solana, in what represents the first case of its kind prosecuted under South Korea’s Virtual Asset User Protection Act. Two main suspects were detained on May 11, and the remaining three were arrested last Wednesday.
According to the official statement, the defendants launched CatFi on the memecoin platform Pump.fun in early 2025. Following the token’s issuance, they deployed a network of fake social media channels to attract investors. The lead suspect, identified by the surname Park, publicly presented himself as an independent influencer under the alias “Eth Father” to promote the project without disclosing his involvement in it.
Another member of the group managed the token’s official channel, artificially inflated the follower count and published announcements of fund lockup plans that were false. The group also used multiple wallets to distribute tokens and conducted wash trading operations in order to conceal their control over the supply.
CatFi Dropped 99%
The price of CatFi increased 1,001 times in just 26 hours after its launch. Around 6,000 investors bought the token during that period, of whom 256 reported combined losses of 900 million won, equivalent to approximately $600,000. The suspects, for their part, allegedly obtained profits exceeding 400 million won before abandoning the project. Since then, the token dropped 99% to reach a market capitalization of just $57,000.
Police Had Ignored the Case
The case exposed a series of failures in institutional action. Independent investigators identified the suspects and their wallet addresses and reported them to the authorities, but police closed the file unresolved after the accused claimed to have been victims of a hack. It was the Financial Services Commission that referred the case to the prosecutor’s office, whose Joint Virtual Asset Crime Investigation Unit coordinated with financial and tax authorities to locate them. One of the indicted had remained three months as a fugitive using disguises to evade capture.
