Soft Rug
A slow, gradual crypto exit scam where project insiders quietly sell their holdings and reduce activity until the project dies, rather than making one dramatic exit.
Also known as: slow rug, slow exit scam
Last reviewed: 10 June 2026
Unlike a hard rug pull where developers drain funds in one move, a soft rug is a drawn-out betrayal. The team continues to post updates and pretend to work while insider wallets steadily sell allocated tokens into the market. Promises of roadmap milestones are delayed indefinitely, community managers gradually go quiet, and development commits slow to a halt.
Because there is no single dramatic event, soft rugs are harder to detect and prosecute. Victims may hold depreciating tokens for months, each week hoping for a recovery that never comes. The team benefits from the gradual nature because they can maintain plausible deniability ('the market conditions are bad') while liquidating.
On-chain tools that track developer wallet movements can reveal steady selling pressure from insider addresses, which is often the clearest early warning. A team that has locked tokens with verifiable vesting contracts provides meaningfully stronger guarantees.