Article Title: Intern Reveals: Polygon Executives Manipulate Meme Coin Price Maliciously
The crypto market is never short of scandals, and even well-known projects are not exempt.
Last night, a Twitter account claiming to be a Polygon community intern, @Rahul__Ghangas, posted a 34-paragraph exposé on Twitter, alleging that Polygon executives colluded with external individuals to maliciously manipulate the profits of the meme project ELECOIN and accused them of misleading and exploiting community developers.
The article included numerous screenshots of chat records, adding credibility to the exposé and accusations.
Here’s a summary of the whole incident provided by Deep Tide.
Personnel Disclosure
Rahul exposed the main individuals involved in the incident at the beginning of the article through a screenshot of a Telegram group chat:
@0xkenzi
Kenzi Wang – Partner at Symbolic Capital, Polygon Advisor
@jack_venture
Jack Lu – Co-founder of multibit and bouncebit, Partner at @NGC_Ventures
@sourcex44
Sanket Shah – Head of Strategy at Polygon Labs
@0xsachi
Sachi Kamiya – Initial team member at Polygon Ventures
@mscryptojiayi
Jiayi Li – Co-founder of Salus Security
@shawncgeek
Shawn Chong – COO of Salus Security and investor in BounceBit
The spark that ignited the incident began with the collaboration of Polygon team executives, VC partners, and project co-founders to orchestrate the meme.
In the screenshot provided by the whistleblower, the chat records show that the internal team was preparing for the official promotion of ELECOIN, including discussions on chip distribution, personnel statistics, and meme narrative in the Telegram group. It was evident that they were preparing for the orchestration.
Plotting the Meme
On January 3, 2024, many key opinion leaders (KOLs) gathered in a Telegram group to plan the promotion of the meme coin ELECOIN under the name “Indian Meme.” Rahul, the whistleblower, mentioned in the tweet that the token had a “secret TGE” at the end of 23, and most of the token supply was acquired by insiders. The project also promised to pay the developers and KOLs as soon as possible in USDC.
The team planned to use Sandeep, the founder of Polygon, and his pet elephant as a medium to promote the story of ELECOIN, hoping to generate hype by sharing pictures of Sandeep’s pet elephant. This idea received support from “top-level individuals” at Polygon.
Rahul sarcastically remarked, “This plan sounds ridiculous, but people will still buy into such stories during a bull market.”
Advancing the Plan
After finalizing the plan, the team started aggressively promoting the project through various social media channels, aiming to reach 5,000 followers as soon as possible.
On the first day of the project, something seemed off: the team had not paid the developers and marketers for their work on promotion and project development, relying solely on their own expenses.
Rahul joined the project later and had a small role in helping with the website development for ELECOIN. He mentioned that the authorization to access the ELECOIN domain was given by Polygon advisor Kenzi Wang, and Rahul had confirmed the communication with Kenzi Wang through other channels.
As Rahul was not kicked out of the group chat after delivering the project, he witnessed firsthand “how the wealthy exploit others’ time and money without any cost, engaging in malicious dumping, mental manipulation, and blatant fraud.”
The Show Begins
In the first few days of executing the plan, as early participants started selling, the team made efforts to maintain the image of ELECOIN as a reliable and stable project through active repurchases. As the plan progressed smoothly, the highlight of ELECOIN’s promotion arrived: the team planned to tag Sandeep on Twitter and “attract” his participation in the project to increase traffic and expand the community.
Of course, all of this was preplanned, from Sandeep’s first interaction with the official ELECOIN account to Sandeep changing his Twitter profile picture to the meme of the elephant (similar to the trend when Solana’s founder changed his profile picture to SillyDragon, which caused the price of Silly token to rise). The article suggested that every step of the development was carefully designed by ELECOIN and even the entire Polygon executive team.
Exposed
After a series of well-planned actions, ELECOIN successfully gained the desired attention. However, this was followed by continuous selling from early participant wallets for three months. No one could blame the internal team for the selling pressure from these early wallets because they were created before the launch of $ELE and funded by exchanges.
Despite the relentless selling pressure, developers and the marketing team continued to work without compensation, driven by the hope of receiving promised rewards and the idea of seizing a “great opportunity.” Many team members even funded the project themselves.
Then, one evening, the situation took a turn for the worse. The $ELE token experienced a massive sell-off, and within two weeks, the market cap plummeted from 170 million to 2 million. All early participant wallets began selling heavily, and the team members who had been working without compensation erupted.
Although these early participant wallets had been cautious, some traces were discovered: it was pointed out that some of the addresses belonged to Jiayi Li and Shawn Chong, the co-founder and COO of Salus Security mentioned at the beginning of the article.
Clearly, the selling pressure came from within their own ranks.
Jiayi Li claimed that the internal selling was due to internal conflicts within the initial team, and she would repurchase some tokens in her personal capacity and provide $5,000 as a market budget.
Rahul sarcastically commented on Jiayi Li’s statement, saying, “How generous!”
From the orchestration to the discovery of internal selling, although we currently cannot confirm the authenticity of these chat screenshots, the exposé itself indicates a clear connection between Polygon executives and external individuals manipulating ELECOIN.
After exposing the whole incident, Rahul also called out Polygon advisor Kenzi Wang and bouncebit co-founder Jack Lu, accusing them of past and ongoing fraudulent activities.
Rahul stated, “If bad actors are not held accountable, the web3 ecosystem will not be able to realize its transformative potential… We need to cultivate a culture of transparency, integrity, and respect. When senior executives misuse their positions for personal gain, they must be held responsible. It goes against the spirit on which the industry is built when they exploit others for their own benefit.”
Conclusion
At present, no relevant individuals have provided an explanation or clarification regarding Rahul’s lengthy exposé and angry accusations.
Regarding this scandal, the price of $Matic has not shown significant fluctuations, perhaps because the incident has not yet become widely known, or maybe the market is no longer surprised by such “unrelated” wrongdoings.
There is nothing new under the sun, and the meme frenzy, fueled by financial nihilism, was originally meant to resist fraud and manipulation hidden in the shadows. However, the hands of evil seem to have reached into this field, undermining the freedom, fairness, and culture that memes represent.
The meme coin you hold may not represent “your freedom,” and the surges you see may be the result of manipulation by interest groups.
As the saying goes, “Beware of the grass stage.” Players should gradually become disillusioned with any top-tier projects.
In the crypto world, cherish the present, and be cautious.
