Crypto Community Debates Allegations of OpenSea Employee’s Involvement in AnubisDAO Rug Pull

Crypto Community Debates Allegations of OpenSea Employee’s Involvement in AnubisDAO Rug Pull

Crypto News – OpenSea, a non-fungible token (NFT) platform, has addressed accusations suggesting the involvement of a former employee in the infamous AnubisDAO rug pull of 2021. The claims emerged on social media, prompting OpenSea to state its lack of awareness regarding any evidence linking the ex-employee to the incident.

In a thread on October 6 on X (previously known as Twitter), the account NFT Ethics, operating anonymously, tagged OpenSea, seeking a response regarding the allegations against Kevin Pawlak, a former head of ventures at OpenSea. The allegations tied Pawlak to the pseudonymous identity “0xSisyphus” and alleged involvement in questionable business practices.

NFT Ethics and Lookonchain, a blockchain analytics account, asserted that 0xSisyphus, hence Pawlak, played a significant role in promoting the AnubisDAO project to investors just before transferring the newly acquired funds to external wallets. The thread suggested that Pawlak’s purported involvement included premeditated actions in the AnubisDAO rug pull and the subsequent laundering of funds through the memecoin Pepe (PEPE).

However, a spokesperson from OpenSea informed Cointelegraph that the company had no knowledge of Pawlak’s engagement in such activities, emphasizing Pawlak’s limited role during his tenure at OpenSea in a non-management position. The company maintained it lacked connections or information about the mentioned projects, emphasizing that they transpired before Pawlak’s association with OpenSea.

In October 2021, AnubisDAO garnered 13,556 Ether, valued at $60 million at the time, from cryptocurrency investors. However, within 20 hours, the funds were dispersed to various wallet addresses, resulting in immediate losses for the investors.

Blockchain investigator ZachXBT expressed skepticism about the accusations, deeming the thread as lacking substantial evidence and relying on unrelated events without factual basis.

Notably, 0xSisyphus had previously offered a 1,000 ETH reward for identifying the wallet address responsible for the fund drain, engaging law enforcement in the United States and Hong Kong. This further fueled doubts surrounding the recent allegations.

ZachXBT highlighted that while negligence and misleading actions were evident concerning Sisyphus regarding the Anubis team multisig, outright theft from the project seemed implausible based on available information. He suggested that “Beerus” and “Ersan,” pseudonymous users, were more likely responsible for the fund loss during the AnubisDAO scandal.