The Pepe Coin community used its official Twitter account to describe how a dispute within their team resulted in the theft of $15 million worth of Pepe coins.
In a surprising turn of events on August 24, 2023, the PEPE community faced unexpected transactions. Around 16 trillion $PEPE tokens, worth about $15 million, were stolen from the project’s multisig CEX wallet.
These tokens were then moved to well-known cryptocurrency exchanges like OKX, Binance, Kucoin, and Bybit. Additionally, the number of required signers for the multisig wallet was reduced from the original 8 to just 2.
an announcement to the $PEPE community:
Yesterday on August 24th, 2023, a series of unexpected transactions took place from the $PEPE multisig CEX
Wallet in which ~16 Trillion $PEPE tokens (worth roughly $15m USD) were transferred to various crypto exchanges (OKX, Binance,… pic.twitter.com/iZmXV1TAvw— Pepe (@pepecoineth) August 26, 2023
Pepe Coin Team Provides Transparency Explanation
The unexpected token transfer and reduction in signers have caused confusion among the PEPE community. To offer clarity, the official PEPE Twitter account explained that the taken tokens were previously part of the CEX wallet. The team emphasized that the wallet wasn’t intended for market sales or personal gain.
This incident highlights the internal disagreements that have existed within PEPE since its beginning. Team conflicts led to a portion of members separating shortly after the project’s launch. Their disagreements and unresponsiveness hindered progress.
The situation escalated when three former team members orchestrated the theft of 16 Trillion tokens, 60% of the multisig’s holdings. Unauthorized transfers were made, erasing their connection to the project. The remaining 10 Trillion tokens are with a committed team member.
Post-incident, most stolen tokens were rapidly sold on OKX and Binance. To prevent misuse, the remaining 10 Trillion tokens will be moved to a new wallet. The affected member is also striving to acquire web domains and usernames for PEPE, planning to burn the remaining tokens after completing these acquisitions.
Pepe Coin Shows Optimism Despite Setback
Despite the unfortunate situation and confusion, the price of Pepe Coin is showing positive momentum today. Over the past 24 hours, the price has risen by almost 7%, reaching $0.0000009045. Its market cap has also increased by 3.40%, totaling $354.98 million.
Due to the crisis, the official PEPE Telegram group is currently locked due to hacking. The primary way of communication is now the @pepecoineth Twitter account, where new official group links will be shared. It’s important for the community to be cautious of scams related to airdrops, staking, mints, or claims, as the official PEPE team doesn’t participate in such activities.
Despite the setback, the remaining PEPE community members are determined to guide the project towards a decentralized and resilient future. This incident underscores the need for carefulness in the cryptocurrency community and verifying connections before taking any actions related to wallets and tokens.
Important: Please note that this article is only meant to provide information and should not be taken as legal, tax, investment, financial, or any other type of advice.
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