{"id":12978,"date":"2023-08-26T14:39:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-26T14:39:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cryptoheretostay.com\/?p=12978"},"modified":"2023-08-26T14:39:02","modified_gmt":"2023-08-26T14:39:02","slug":"pepe-founder-blames-nefarious-ex-team-members-for-unexpected-16m-withdrawal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/?p=12978","title":{"rendered":"Pepe founder blames \u2018nefarious ex-team members\u2019 for unexpected $16M withdrawal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\namzn_assoc_placement = \"adunit0\";\r\namzn_assoc_tracking_id = \"totafreearti-20\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_mode = \"search\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_type = \"smart\";\r\namzn_assoc_marketplace = \"amazon\";\r\namzn_assoc_region = \"US\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_search_phrase = \"crypto\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_category = \"All\";\r\namzn_assoc_search_bar = \"false\";\r\namzn_assoc_title = \"\";\r\namzn_assoc_rows =\"1\";\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"\/\/z-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/onejs?MarketPlace=US\"><\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p>On Aug. 24, 16 trillion Pepe tokens (PEPE), worth around $15.7 million at the time, were unexpectedly withdrawn from the project\u2019s multi-signature centralized exchange wallet. An anonymous founder of the meme coin pointed the finger at three former team members as the culprits behind the transfers in a post on Aug. 25.<\/p>\n<p>The transfer, in which around 60% of the PEPE tokens in the multi-sig wallet were moved, sparked speculations of a rug pull. The stolen Pepe tokens were quickly transferred to and sold on exchanges including Binance, OKX, KuCoin, and Bybit. The price of PEPE fell about 15% on the transfer day as investors started panicking.<\/p>\n<p>Digital asset research firm ASXN also reported that the number of signatures required to operate the multi-sign wallet was changed from 5\/8 to 2\/8.<\/p>\n<h2>Pepe founder\u2019s explanation of the incident<\/h2>\n<p>According to the founder, who posted his extensive statement on X, formerly Twitter,<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSince its inception, $PEPE has unfortunately been plagued by inner strife with a portion of the team being bad actors led by big egos and greed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The founder added that while the project is now \u201centirely free of this baggage,\u201d the founding team often faced conflict since its early days. The \u201cmajority\u201d of the token\u2019s founding team started distancing themselves after the first week of project inception, the founder noted.<\/p>\n<p>The founder complained that these team members \u201cblocked\u201d progress on making donations or purchases with multi-sig tokens. The alleged team members withheld signatures either because of disagreements, inability to provide signatures, or being unreachable for \u201cweeks at a time,\u201d the founder wrote, adding:\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYesterday these 3 ex-team members came back behind my back, logged onto the multi-sig, stole 16 Trillion\/ 60% of the 26 trillion multi-sig tokens, and sent them to exchanges to sale.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After the unplanned transfers, these team members removed themselves from the multi-sig wallet \u201cin an attempt to absolve any association to $PEPE,\u201d the founder alleged. The rogue team members also deleted their social media accounts, so that the founder was left with\u00a0 \u2018nothing but a message stating \u201cthe multi-sig has been updated, you are now in full control\u201d.\u2019 <\/p>\n<h2>What comes next<\/h2>\n<p>The faceless founder of Pepe assured investors that the remaining 10 trillion PEPE tokens in the multi-sig wallet as well as the project\u2019s official Twitter account are in \u201csafe hands.\u201d The founder wrote:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am shocked at what took place and would like to apologize for all of the fear and uncertainty and any losses the actions of these bad actors have caused members of our community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The founder explained that the tokens in the affected multi-sig wallet were \u201cnever meant to be sold on the market or for the team to profit from.\u201d The anonymous persona further stressed that if he had been in charge of the affected wallet \u201cthe whole time,\u201d he would\u2019ve made some donations and burned the majority \u201clong ago.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dileaniating his plan for the future, the founder wrote:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have started discussions with some prominent community members who will be helping me guide things forward, and I am excited to be in the position to do everything we can to set up $PEPE to thrive as the decentralized and anti-fragile meme-coin asset it deserves to be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Regarding the remaining 10 trillion PEPE in the multi-sig wallet, worth around $9 million at present, the founder said he would transfer them into a new wallet, \u201cwhere they will safely rest until a use or burn arises.\u201d The founder is negotiating for web domains and usernames for Pepe and once the tokens have been used for such sales or donations, he will \u201cburn the remainder.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Skepticism in the Pepe community<\/h2>\n<p>The founder\u2019s post on X found mixed responses, with some urging the founder to immediately burn the remaining tokens in the multi-sig wallet.<\/p>\n<p>Other users, however, questioned the veracity of the claims. The skepticism is based on the fact that the transaction that changed the number of signers required to 2\/8 was signed by five wallets, possibly indicating the involvement of more than three people, contrary to the founder\u2019s claims.<\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\namzn_assoc_placement = \"adunit0\";\r\namzn_assoc_tracking_id = \"totafreearti-20\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_mode = \"search\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_type = \"smart\";\r\namzn_assoc_marketplace = \"amazon\";\r\namzn_assoc_region = \"US\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_search_phrase = \"bitcoin\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_category = \"All\";\r\namzn_assoc_search_bar = \"false\";\r\namzn_assoc_title = \"\";\r\namzn_assoc_rows =\"1\";\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"\/\/z-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/onejs?MarketPlace=US\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/pepecoin-founder-blames-nefarious-ex-team-members-for-unexpected-16m-withdrawal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Aug. 24, 16 trillion Pepe tokens (PEPE), worth around $15.7 million at the time, were unexpectedly withdrawn from the project\u2019s multi-signature centralized exchange wallet. An anonymous founder of the meme coin pointed the finger at three former team members as the culprits behind the transfers in a post on Aug. 25. The transfer, in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ethereum-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12978\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}