Jupiter cooperates with Irene Zhao to launch meme coin; detective exposes the dark history of fraud

Source: Crypto City

Controversy over collaboration with Irene Zhao

Decentralized cryptocurrency aggregator Jupiter has recently been caught in a storm for announcing a collaboration with a controversial KOL. The anonymous founder of Solana decentralized exchange aggregator Jupiter, meow喵, announced on the X platform yesterday (July 23) that it will launch a meme coin in collaboration with KOL Irene Zhao from Singapore. This news has caused strong dissatisfaction in the cryptocurrency community because Irene Zhao has previously been involved in several suspicious crypto-related activities.

Jupiter's anonymous founder meow喵 announced a collaboration with Singapore's KOL Irene Zhao to launch a meme coin

According to the announcement, the collaboration aims to improve the "ecosystem of meme coins" and provide crypto enthusiasts with a "chain mother" they can rely on when they are sad. He also pointed out that the plan hopes to solve major problems in the current meme coin issuance environment, such as "fake wide distribution, preemptive action" and "lying KOLs."

meow said: "If the plan is successful, it can ideally provide a model for other meme coins to compare with the "preemptive start, black box control, instant sell-off, and paranoid issuance ecology" we are currently seeing. ”

However, the announcement quickly drew criticism from many netizens, with most comments accusing Jupiter of saying something that was completely inconsistent with what it did, because its collaboration with Irene Zhao was simply supporting fraud. Chain detective ZachXBT released a series of evidence to tease the irony of the collaboration, pointing out that Irene Zhao had conducted opaque transactions in her So-Col project. ZachXBT accused Irene Zhao of previously defrauding early investors through secret transactions with DWF, and the community was completely unaware of this.

Chain detective ZachXBT A series of evidence was posted to poke fun at the irony of the collaboration

The accusations were also included in X’s Community Notes, with the added note: “Irene Zhao has been involved in multiple scams. Be careful when dealing with them.” It was considered a “helpful” comment, and as of the time of writing, the note had been viewed 81,000 times, and was generally considered by netizens to be “citing excellent sources” and “providing important relevant context.”

Netizens made comments on the content of meow's announcement, which received positive comments from most netizens. Source: X

Controversy and responses in early projects

Icing, a netizen on X, also specifically mentioned: "The Internet has memory" and sorted out the projects that Irene Zhao had participated in in the past, including the most controversial $SIMP this time, and IreneDAO NFT.

So-Col ($SIMP)

According to the evidence provided by ZachXBT, in February this year, market maker DWF Labs invested $1.5 million to purchase the native $SIMP tokens of Irene Zhao's So-Col project. Irene Zhao had promised to lock these tokens for one year, until February 2024. However, on-chain data shows that DWF received more than 3 million $SIMP tokens in March and transferred about 2.6 million $SIMP to KuCoin during the same time period.

DWF transferred $SIMP to the exchange soon after receiving it, which is inconsistent with Irene Zhao's promise that the tokens will be locked for one year

ZachXBT believes that she sold $SIMP to DWF Labs without the knowledge of investors, which is completely different from the aforementioned meow's expectation to solve the "black box control, instant selling, and paranoid issuance ecology". According to CoinGecko data, the price of $SIMP is only $0.0009283, and the market value is only $453,900. Basically, this project is dead.

Jupiter collaborates with Irene Zhao to promote meme coins! Detective exposes fraud history, did she respond?

IreneDAO

Irene Zhao became famous in the crypto world in early 2022 for launching an NFT series called "IreneDAO" using her photos as NFTs, accumulating more than $5 million in revenue. The project aims to "disrupt the creator economy." The series initially soared to 1.49 ETH, but according to NFTGo data, the current floor price is 0.19 ETH, down 87% from its all-time high.

「IreneDAO」 NFT data Source: NFTGo

Other controversial projects include Konomi ($KONO), which was originally listed on OKX, but in January, OKX announced the delisting of $KONO. Konomi has neither achieved decentralized governance nor the cross-chain bridge solution that the project is expected to implement.

Konomi ($KONO) coin price trend chart Source: CoinGecko

Community and reactions of several parties

The cooperation between Jupiter and Irene Zhao has caused widespread discussion and criticism, and many people are dissatisfied with Jupiter's decision. Some netizens even questioned whether meow can represent Jupiter.

Netizens expressed their dissatisfaction with this incident. Source: X

However, some people are taking a wait-and-see attitude and believe that more time is needed to observe the final effect of the cooperation.

Some netizens took a wait-and-see attitude, believing that more time is needed to observe the final effect of the cooperation. Source: X

The two parties involved in this incident also responded to this matter. Jupiter's anonymous founder meow directly left a message under ZachXBT's post: "The key concepts here are the allocated developer market share, known airdrop allocations, and long-term liquidity adjustments. We can only understand how past events work over time."

Irene Zhao herself posted a message saying: "A statement will be issued in response to false statements." (As of the time of writing, no statement has been issued.)

Irene Zhao's response to this incident Source: X

This storm undoubtedly provides an opportunity for the cryptocurrency community to reflect. How to find a balance between innovation and risk has become an important issue for future development. As the cooperation progresses further, whether Jupiter and Irene Zhao can resolve the controversy and win the trust of the community still needs time to verify.