Fake ’ClawdBot’ AI Token Skyrockets to $16M Before 90% Collapse — Founder Issues Urgent Scam Warning

Another day, another crypto rug pull—this time with an AI twist.

A token masquerading as the legitimate 'ClawdBot' AI project just executed a textbook pump-and-dump. It rocketed to a dizzying $16 million valuation before the floor vanished, sending investors into a 90% freefall. The real project's founder was left scrambling to warn the community, but for many, the alert came far too late.

The Anatomy of a Modern Scam

These schemes haven't changed much—just the packaging. Bad actors hijack the hype of legitimate sectors, like artificial intelligence, to lend credibility to their vaporware. They create a frenzy, often using social media bots and influencer shills, to pump the price to an artificial peak. Then, with a few clicks, they pull the liquidity, leaving the chart looking like a cliff face.

Why This Keeps Happening

It's the Wild West out here. The lack of regulation in decentralized spaces means due diligence falls entirely on the investor. Greed often overrides caution, especially when stories of overnight millionaires flood the timeline. It's a perfect storm: FOMO meets anonymity, with zero accountability. As one cynical trader put it, 'The only AI involved was in generating the fake hype articles.'

Navigating the Minefield

So, how do you avoid becoming the next exit liquidity? Verify, then verify again. Check contract addresses directly from official project channels—never from a tweet or Telegram link. Scrutinize liquidity locks and team token vesting schedules. If something seems too good to be true, it almost certainly is. Real innovation builds value over time, not in 48-hour manic sprints.

The 'ClawdBot' impersonator is a stark reminder: in the rush to fund the future, don't forget the oldest rule in finance—if you don't understand where the yield comes from, you are the yield.

Steinberger made the statement after days of being contacted by crypto traders and promoters following the sudden appearance of meme coins branded around “ClawdBot.”

Founder Says Token Activity Is Hurting Software Project

In a post on X, he asked investors to stop contacting him and also stated that he WOULD not take any fees or endorsements related to crypto launches.

To all crypto folks:
Please stop pinging me, stop harassing me.
I will never do a coin.
Any project that lists me as coin owner is a SCAM.
No, I will not accept fees.
You are actively damanging the project.

This caution was issued due to the emergence of the impersonation accounts that were marketing a token called $CLAWD, which was displayed on Solana-based meme coin platforms.

The token briefly gained traction among retail traders, with some reporting early gains as HYPE spread across social media.

Traders posted on X that the incident was another instance of speculative AI-related tokens falling as soon as official dismissal was announced.

Several users accused the anonymous token deployers of serial rug-pull behavior, claiming similar projects had been launched and abandoned under different names.

The situation was compounded by a naming transition underway at the time. Steinberger said the ClawdBot project was forced to rebrand to Moltbot following trademark issues.

During the renaming process, mistakes with account migrations allowed third parties to squat on or take control of related GitHub and X handles.

Had to rename our accounts for trademark stuff and messed up the GitHub rename and the X rename got snatched by crypto shills.

That went wonderful.@moltbot it is.

Those accounts were then used to impersonate the project and promote crypto tokens as if they were officially linked.

Steinberger said he is working with GitHub to recover the affected accounts and urged users to ignore any crypto-related claims tied to the project.

Viral AI Tool ClawdBot Faces Scrutiny After Security Warnings

ClawdBot, now Moltbot, gained attention earlier this month after going viral among developers.

The tool is an open-source, self-hosted AI assistant designed to run locally on a user’s machine and integrate with messaging platforms such as Telegram, WhatsApp, Discord, and Slack.

Unlike web-based chatbots, it is designed to retain long-term memory, execute commands, and automate tasks directly on the user’s system.

Steinberger, who previously sold software company PSPDFKit for about €100 million, returned to development to build the project as a privacy-focused alternative to cloud-hosted AI tools.

At the same time, cybersecurity researchers have raised concerns about unsafe deployments of ClawdBot by users unfamiliar with server security.

Blockchain security firm SlowMist and independent researchers reported that hundreds of ClawdBot gateway instances were exposed to the public internet due to misconfigured proxies.

SlowMist TI Alert

Clawdbot gateway exposure identified: hundreds of API keys and private chat logs are at risk. Multiple unauthenticated instances are publicly accessible, and several code flaws may lead to credential theft and even remote code execution (RCE).

We strongly… https://t.co/j2ERoWPFnh

These setups potentially allowed access to API keys, chat logs, and command execution capabilities.

Researchers stressed that the issue stemmed from user configuration errors rather than a hidden exploit but warned that the risks were serious given the tool’s deep system access.

Those security warnings added to confusion as scammers used the project’s sudden visibility to market tokens to speculative traders.