Intern Report: Polygon Executives Accused of Manipulating Meme Coin Price
The cryptocurrency market is no stranger to 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-tweet thread exposing alleged malicious manipulation of the meme project ELECOIN by Polygon executives and external individuals. The intern also accused them of misleading and exploiting community developers.
The thread included numerous screenshots of chat logs, adding credibility to the allegations. Let’s summarize the details of the incident.
Personnel Disclosure
Rahul began the article by exposing the names of the key individuals involved in the incident through a Telegram group chat screenshot:
@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 incident began with high-ranking Polygon team members, VC partners, and project co-creators colluding to create a meme. The provided screenshot shows that the internal team was preparing for the promotion of ELECOIN, including discussions about token distribution, personnel statistics, and meme narratives in the Telegram group. It was evident that they were preparing for this scheme.
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 using the theme of “Indian memes.” Rahul claimed in the thread that the token had already undergone a “secret TGE” at the end of 2023, with most of the token supply being acquired by insiders. The project also promised to pay developers and KOLs for their work 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 ELECOIN story. They hoped to generate hype by having Sandeep post pictures of the pet elephant and create a buzz around ELECOIN. This idea received support from “top-level individuals” at Polygon. Rahul sarcastically remarked, “This plan sounds absurd, but people still buy into these stories during bull markets.”
Advancing the Plan
Once the plan was finalized, the team began actively promoting the project through various social media channels, aiming to reach 5,000 followers as soon as possible.
On the first day, something seemed off. The team had not paid developers and marketers for their promotional work, and they were relying on their own funds. Rahul joined the project later and had a small role in helping with the website development for ELECOIN. He confirmed through other channels that the TG account he communicated with belonged to Kenzi Wang, the Polygon advisor who authorized his access to the ELECOIN domain.
Despite delivering the project, Rahul was not removed from the group chat, allowing him to witness firsthand “how wealthy individuals manipulate and exploit others’ time and money without any cost, engaging in malicious pump and dump, psychological manipulation, and outright fraud.”
The Show Begins
In the first few days of the plan, as early participants began selling their tokens, the team made efforts to maintain the appearance that ELECOIN was a reliable and stable project through active buybacks. As the plan progressed, the highlight of the ELECOIN promotion came: the team planned to tag Sandeep on Twitter to attract traffic and community development.
Of course, everything was pre-planned, from Sandeep’s first interaction with the official ELECOIN account to him changing his Twitter profile picture to the meme elephant (similar to when the founder of Solana changed his profile picture to SillyDragon, triggering a surge in Silly token). The author of the thread believed that every step of the event’s development was carefully designed by the ELECOIN and even the entire Polygon executive team.
The Unraveling
After a series of careful planning, ELECOIN gained the desired attention. However, with the attention came continuous selling from early participants for three months. No one could blame the project insiders for the selling pressure since these early wallets were created before $ELE was even launched and the funds came from exchanges.
Faced with relentless selling, developers and the marketing team continued their work in the hopes of receiving promised rewards and seizing the “great opportunity,” even working for free to build the project.
Then, one night, the situation took a turn for the worse. The $ELE token was massively dumped, and in under two weeks, the total market value dropped from 170 million to 2 million. All early participant wallets began selling in large quantities, leading to an eruption from team members who had been working for free.
Although these early participant wallets were carefully disguised, some traces were discovered: some addresses were linked to Jiayi Li and Shawn Chong, the co-founders and COO of Salus Security mentioned at the beginning of the article.
Clearly, the dumping came from within. Jiayi Li claimed that the internal selling was due to internal conflicts within the initial team. She pledged to repurchase some tokens in her personal capacity and provide a $5,000 market budget.
Rahul sarcastically responded to Jiayi Li’s statement, saying, “How generous!”
From the collusion to the discovery of internal dumping, although we cannot currently verify the authenticity of these chat screenshots, the intern’s revelations provide a clear context regarding the alleged manipulation of ELECOIN by Polygon executives and external individuals.
After exposing the incident, Rahul directly accused Polygon advisor Kenzi Wang and bouncebit co-founder Jack Lu, openly accusing them of past and ongoing fraudulent behavior.
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 high-level executives abuse their positions for personal gain, they must be held accountable. Using others for personal gain goes against the spirit on which this industry is built.”
Conclusion
As of now, no individuals involved in the incident have provided an explanation or clarification regarding the allegations raised by Rahul’s lengthy expose and angry accusations.
The price of $Matic, Polygon’s native token, has not shown significant fluctuations in response to this incident. Perhaps the news has not yet spread widely, or maybe the market has become desensitized to such “unrelated” wrongdoing.
There is nothing new under the sun, and the meme craze, fueled by financial nihilism, was originally meant to resist fraud and manipulation lurking in the shadows. However, it seems that the hands of evil have reached into this field, contradicting the principles of freedom, fairness, and culture that memes represent.
The meme coin you hold in your hands may not represent “your freedom,” and the price surge you witness may be the result of manipulation by interest groups.
As the “Grass Stage Theory” continues to unfold, players should gradually become more skeptical of any top-level projects. In the crypto world, cherish every moment and proceed with caution.