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The circumstances behind the mysterious $16 million withdrawal from the Pepecoin (PEPE) project\u2019s<\/a> multisig wallet have seemingly been revealed, with the finger being pointed at three ex-team members who went rogue. <\/p>\n On Aug. 24, the price of PEPE plunged by roughly 15%<\/a> amid fears of a potential rug-pull after the community spotted that $16 million worth of PEPE was withdrawn from the Pepe multisig wallet and sent to several exchanges. <\/p>\n 1\/4<\/p>\n 1 hour ago, the Pepe multisig wallet, changed the amount of signatures required on their multisig from a 5\/8 to 2\/8. This comes after sending $15.7 million worth of $PEPE<\/a> to exchanges.<\/p>\n A breakdown of what we know: pic.twitter.com\/bxBxp6Nzqz<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 ASXN (@asxn_r) August 24, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Clearing up the matter in an Aug. 25 post on X (Twitter), one of the anonymous founding members behind Pepecoin provided a community announcement from the @pepecoineth account, detailing what they claim had happened. <\/p>\n According to the statement, three team members abruptly stole the funds from the multisig and then abandoned the project completely, leaving it in full control to the sole remaining member. <\/p>\n \u201cThe multi-sig was set up to require 3\/4 signers present for an approval. Yesterday these 3 ex-team members came back behind my back, logged onto the multi-sig, stole 16 Trillion\/ 60% of the 26 trillion multi-sig tokens, and sent them to exchanges to sell.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cThey then removed themselves from the multisig in an attempt to absolve any association to $PEPE, deleting all of their social accounts and leaving me behind nothing but a message stating \u2018the multisig has been updated, you are now in full control,\u2019\u201d they added. <\/p>\n an announcement to the $PEPE<\/a> community: <\/p>\n Yesterday on August 24th, 2023, a series of unexpected transactions took place from the $PEPE<\/a> multisig CEX \u2014 Pepe (@pepecoineth) August 26, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The founding member claimed that the X account and the remaining 10 trillion PEPE in the multsig are now in safe hands, with the funds set to be transferred to a new wallet where \u201cthey will safely rest until a use or burn arises.\u201d<\/p>\n It was also asserted that these former members were difficult to work with since Pepecoin launched in April<\/a>, and had held the project back from progress on its various targets. <\/p>\n Related: <\/strong><\/em>PEPE whale seizes dip opportunity, buys $529K worth of tokens<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Moving forward, the remaining member claimed they will do what\u2019s right for the PEPE community now that the bad actors have gone. <\/p>\n \u201cSince its inception, $PEPE has unfortunately been plagued by inner strife with a portion of the team being bad actors led by big egos and greed,\u201d they said, adding that: <\/p>\n \u201cAs I process what has happened, I look forward to a future for $PEPE where I will be able to operate with the community and tokens\u2019 best intention in mind and no negligent team members and locked multisig situation blocking me from doing what is best.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The telegram group for $PEPE<\/a> is currently locked down, the old telegram account for the group owner was hacked and the group was taken over. In the process of trying to regain access or make a new one. All official communication for $PEPE<\/a> will take place via the @pepecoineth<\/a>\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/lQFTu02jub<\/a><\/p>\n\n
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Wallet in which ~16 Trillion $PEPE<\/a> tokens (worth roughly $15m USD) were transferred to various crypto exchanges (OKX, Binance,\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/iZmXV1TAvw<\/a><\/p>\n\n