$16 million was suspiciously stolen from the Pepecoin (PEPE) project’s multisig wallet, sending shockwaves through the crypto world. On August 24, the price of PEPE fell by about 15%, sparking fears of a rug-pull as witnesses witnessed the enormous withdrawal. The funds then appeared to travel to numerous digital exchanges.
On August 25, however, the developing narrative of this digital drama was revealed. An unnamed founder of the Pepecoin initiative turned to Twitter to address the urgent situation. A story of betrayal was disclosed in a message issued by the @pepecoineth handle. Three initial team members allegedly coordinated the robbery, stealing the multisig before abandoning the project, leaving the only remaining member in charge.
The method, which was initially supposed to need signatures from three out of four members for any approval, has been circumvented. “Yesterday, these three ex-colleagues clandestinely accessed the multisig, pocketing 16 Trillion or 60% of the 26 trillion tokens from the wallet, before offloading them onto exchanges,” the post stated. These rogue individuals disassociated themselves from the multisig in a final act of disassociation, wiping all digital tracks and leaving behind a terrifying note: “The multisig has been updated; you are now in full control.”
The remaining founder provided reassurances, confirming that the remaining 10 trillion PEPE tokens are secure and will be moved to a new wallet for protection until future use or potential burn. This report also provided insights into Pepecoin’s rocky trajectory since its start in April. When addressing the issues experienced due to a portion of the crew driven by avarice and enormous egos, the founder didn’t mince words
The road ahead appears promising, with the founder declaring devotion to the PEPE community’s well-being and highlighting a brighter future free of naughty people.
The public’s reactions were unsurprisingly mixed. Some celebrated a brighter future for PEPE, while others questioned the authenticity of these admissions.
As this article is being written, PEPE’s value is on the mend, having gained 5.7% the previous day and is currently at $$0.000000895278. According to CoinGecko, its current market capitalisation is $382.7 million.
