ZKasino Review 2026: Rug Pull Allegations and Refunds

ZKasino described itself as a decentralised betting platform with tokenised ownership on ZK-rollups. A DeFi tracker lists it on Polygon, Arbitrum, BNB Chain and Fantom since January 2023, with no audits recorded and only about $941 in locked value today.

The project is best known for what happened in spring 2024. Reports say ZKasino ran a campaign offering ZKAS token airdrops to users who bridged ETH, promising to return the ETH later. Outlets described it as an alleged rug pull or exit scam involving roughly $30 million to $33 million.

In early May 2024, a report said Dutch authorities arrested a 26-year-old suspect linked to the case. Around May 8, reports said about $20 million in bridged ETH returned to the project's multisig. On May 29, ZKasino announced a 72-hour window to refund roughly $30 million in ETH to investors who signed up on its portal.

The official website could not be confirmed, and the project does not publish a licence, audit reports or terms that we could find.

ZKasino was marketed as a decentralised betting platform where ownership would be tokenised, so that holders could act as shareholders through a DAO. The infrastructure was described as built on ZK-rollups, which bundle many transactions into a single proof posted to a base chain such as Ethereum.

In practice, reports describe a bridge campaign: users sent ETH to the platform and were promised ZKAS tokens as an airdrop, with the ETH to be returned later. This setup meant users handed their ETH to a project-controlled wallet, which is the core counterparty risk. Reports say that wallet was controlled by a multisig and that funds were moved around, with some later returned.

No working betting product, game list or odds model is described, so how bets would have been settled is not published.

ZKasino does not publish a fee schedule that we could find, and no house edge, withdrawal fee or bridging cost is stated. Anyone who bridged ETH would also have paid ordinary network gas on the chain used.

The bigger cost reported by multiple outlets was not a fee but the funds users sent in: about $30 million was reported to have been raised, and refunds were offered only for a 72-hour window.

ZKasino should be treated as high risk. Several outlets reported rug pull or exit scam allegations, a report says Dutch authorities arrested a suspect, and users who bridged ETH reportedly had trouble getting it back. No audits are listed, and no licence or regulator is published.

Because the model required sending ETH to a project-controlled wallet, users carried full counterparty risk. Refund-style announcements after an incident also attract phishing, so verify any claim through multiple independent sources.

Gambling is for adults 18 and over. Check that online gambling is legal where you live, set limits, and seek help from a responsible gambling service if betting stops being fun.

This page is for people researching ZKasino after hearing the name, including affected users, and for readers who want to understand how a bridge-and-airdrop campaign can go wrong. It is not for anyone looking for a safe place to place bets.