Patrick Shyu, an ex-Google tech lead and now known as TechLead on Youtube, recently got caught in a controversy. It revolves around him allegedly engineering a multi-million dollar ‘pump and dump scheme’, rug-pulling his over a million followers.
The Million Token (MM)
Shyu, a very well renowned figure in the youtube tech space, launched the Million Token (MM) on July 1. He launched the token via Initial Dex Offering (IDO) on Uniswap, a leading decentralized exchange. According to the project’s website, Million is a pre-mined cryptocurrency with a fixed supply. Moreover, the fixed supply consists of one million tokens backed by one USDC per token. The website specifically emphasizes that MM has no ‘maximum’ value, despite only $1 million worth of stablecoins backing it up.
The Quick Rise and Fall
MM saw a monumental increase of 3500% within 72 hours of its launch, jumping from $1.00 to $36.87. However, since then, the price has been crashing down, currently sitting at $15.26. That is a decline of around 58%.
Controversy Unfolds
Due to such immediate fall, the allegations came crashing, labelling the project a pump and dump. Twitter user “DCF GOD” highlighted key aspects of the fall and explained why it seems like a rug pull. To clarify, they mentioned:
“By removing liquidity and not selling, he’s effectively selling without ‘selling’. This way, he doesn’t have to tell the community that he sold while they all bought. He has to hold his initial promise of keeping 1m of USDC liquidity,” they argued.
Patrick Shyu’s Response
Shyu shrug off all the allegations and addressed the situation through a youtube video. He completely denies the allegation of him ‘rug pulling’ on his followers. Moreover, Shyu mentioned that MM was just a ‘social experiment’ and people should not consider it an investment.
“A million tokens should not be considered an investment by any means. This is a social experiment and really pure speculation. It’s kind of a game for us to see what happens with this, kind of like Dogecoin.”
