In Brief:
- Wonderland’s co-founder was previously involved in the largest scam of QuadrigaCX.
- Michael Patryn was missing after the death of QuadrigaCX’s founder.
- Patryn step down from his position in wonderland and the team will decide his future through voting.
One of the recent famous protocol’s Wonderland’s TIME token crashed by 32% after blockchain sleuths unveiled the truth in a tweet. The tweet reveals that ‘Sifu’, a key person of the founding team, was previously involved in the QuadrigaCX Exit Scam, a crypto industry’s biggest crime.
Avalanche-backed Wonderland has gained attention from many investors, many community members refer to themselves as the ‘Frog Nation’. Currently, many investors have invested billions of dollars in the protocol. But this morning trust was shaken after the tweet was posted.
“0xSifu is the Co-founder of QuadrigaCX, Michael Patryn,” tweeted Zach, a pseudonymous Twitter account with a track record of unmasking crypto scams and nefarious behavior. “If you are unfamiliar that is the Canadian exchange that collapsed in 2019 after the founder Gerald Cotten disappeared with $169m.”
Later, Wonderland founder Daniele Sestagalli accepted and revealed that he already knew Sifu’s identity and relation with QuadrigaCX: “I want everyone to know that I was aware of this and decided that the past of an individual doesn’t determine their future,” Sestagalli tweeted.
This confession was not accepted by the crypto community.
“In 2005, he pled guilty to credit and bank fraud. In 2007, he admitted burglary, theft, and computer fraud. In 2018, he and his partner “lost access” to $115M in customer funds,” said Inverse Finance founder Nour Haridy in a response to Sestagalli’s tweet. “I agree that inmates deserve second chances but this is NOT about being convicted.”
QuadrigaCX was established in 2013 by Gerald Cotten and Michael Patryn. Due to less competition, soon it became the largest crypto exchange in Canada. Unfortunately, Cotten died in December 2018. After his death, $190 million worth of investment of 115,000 customers was locked as only Cotten was the person who had the private key to access funds according to its executives.
But after a while, the crypto community declared it as an existing scam, a term that refers to stealing investors’ funds. The entire scandal was also covered in the documentary, which was released on the OTT platform, Netflix.
Sestagalli has said in an official statement that 0xSifu / Patryn will be taken down from his position. There will then be a vote to decide his future in the company. “Wonderland has the say to who manages its treasury not me or the rest of the wonderland team,” said Sestagalli.
