Former Google employee and YouTube blogger with over 1.1 million subscribers Patrick Shue, better known as TechLead, was accused of organizing the Pump & Dump scheme.
On July 1, Shue launched Uniswap on the decentralized exchange GONE token Million (MM), which then actively promoted on its channel. According to the project’s website, this is a digital currency mined through a premine with a fixed supply of 1 million MM, allegedly backed by the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin in a 1: 1 ratio.
The creator of the project noted that the MM token “does not have a maximum value”, despite being pegged to USDC. By July 4, the asset’s price rose 3580%, peaking at $ 36.87, according to Uniswap Info.
At the time of writing, MM is trading at $ 13.93, down more than 60% from its high.
Data: Uniswap Info.
The collapse that followed the rapid rise in price prompted some community members to think about the Pump & Dump scheme. A user with the nickname DCF GOD noted that Shue had withdrawn liquidity using the same address as for issuing tokens.
1/ Here’s how @techleadhd is scamming his community, telling them to buy his coin while he dumps on them
This is his address: https://t.co/kMUBjARNwd
You know it’s him because it’s the same wallet that minted the initial 1M $MM
— DCF GOD (@dcfgod) July 4, 2021
The user explained that TechLead was “effectively selling without selling,” withdrawing liquidity. According to him, the only thing that the founder of the project cared about was maintaining the collateral in USDC at the level of $ 1 million. According to DCF GOD estimates, Shue thus earned about $ 2 million.
Okay last tweet since I have folks telling me I don’t know how uniswap works
You can ignore all the liquidity stuff and just compare balances
Techlead start balance:
— 1M $USDC
— 1M $MMTechlead current balance:
— 3M $USDC
— about 113k $MMHe has sold MM and gained $2M
— DCF GOD (@dcfgod) July 5, 2021
Shue called the thread “absolute FUD.” According to him, this is how liquidity works in Uniswap V3, and with all the desire, it will not work otherwise.
Blogger ChainlinkGod.eth 2.0 noted that the founder of Million missed the crux of the accusations.
“You’ve created a get-rich-quick scheme to cash in on your followers. You added liquidity when the price was low and brought it to the peak of value, making a profit on the USDC difference, ”he wrote.
You’ve completely missed his core point, you’ve created a “get rich quick” scheme so you can dump on your followers, you’ve added liquidity when the price is low and removed it when the price was high and profited the difference in $USDC, you do realize all the data is on-chain?
— ChainLinkGod.eth 2.0 (@ChainLinkGod) July 4, 2021
On his page, Shue also said that he was smarter than Vitalik Buterin, who “could not even get into Google.”
Just remember — I’m smarter than Vitalik Buterin. He couldn’t even get into Google.
— TechLead (@techleadhd) July 5, 2021
TechLead later posted a video detailing the allegations. He said he did not “knock the ground” from under the feet of investors by taking liquidity. Shue emphasized that MM tokens “should not be viewed as an investment” – he called the project “a social experiment.
“This is a social experiment and pure speculation. It’s kind of a game for us – we want to see what comes out of it, like in the case of Dogecoin, ”he said.
#MillionToken — Answering questions and status update.https://t.co/IVrteMHolu pic.twitter.com/EOjg6jSIWd
— TechLead (@techleadhd) July 5, 2021
US Senator Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts drew attention to the prevalence of Pump & Dump schemes in the digital asset industry. She called cryptocurrencies a “lousy investment.”
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