TechFlow news: Multichain has issued an official statement explaining the aftermath of the $120 million theft:
On May 21, 2023, Zhao Jun, CEO of Multichain, was taken from his home by Chinese police and has since lost contact with the Multichain team. The team contacted MPC node operators and learned that their operational access keys to the MPC node servers had been revoked. Furthermore, these MPC node servers—like other regular servers—were actually running under Zhao Jun's personal cloud server account. No team member has access to Zhao Jun's personal cloud server account, making it impossible to log into these MPC servers.
Subsequently, the team contacted Zhao Jun’s family and learned that all of Zhao Jun’s computers, phones, hardware wallets, and recovery phrases had been seized by authorities. Since the project’s inception, all operating funds and investments from investors had been under Zhao Jun’s control. This meant that both the team’s entire funding and server access were in the hands of Zhao Jun—and now, effectively, in the hands of law enforcement.
Due to a lack of information about the case, the team could only do its best to maintain operations using remaining access rights on non-MPC servers that had not yet been revoked. Following legal advice, the team chose to cooperate as much as possible with Zhao Jun’s family and comply with local laws and regulations by refraining from disclosing unauthorized details of the case to the public.
On May 30, out of responsibility to the community, the team released a message regarding Zhao Jun’s disappearance and informed the community of the technical issues currently being faced.
On June 4, Zhao Jun’s family successfully logged into the cloud server platform using historical data found on a computer at his home. However, Zhao Jun’s family only allowed engineers from the Multichain team physical access to the home computer to fix technical issues with Router2 and Router5.
During this time, Zhao Jun’s family and their lawyer communicated with the police. The team was not informed of specific case details but was told that Zhao Jun would be released soon, and they were asked to continue maintaining the system while awaiting further updates.
The Multichain protocol continued to operate as designed. The team did its best to sustain Multichain operations with limited resources and resolved user issues where possible.
On July 7, user assets locked in the MPC address were abnormally transferred to unknown addresses. According to information provided by Zhao Jun’s sister, login records from a Kunming IP address were discovered on the cloud server platform, along with a series of fund transfer operations initiated from the MPC address.
On July 9, Zhao Jun’s sister transferred the remaining user assets from the router pool and subsequently notified the team and several project parties to initiate asset preservation actions. These funds were moved to an EOA address controlled by Zhao Jun’s sister.
0x1eed63efba5f81d95bfe37d82c8e736b974f477b
0x6b6314f4f07c974600d872182dcde092c480e57b
On July 13, according to information provided by Zhao Jun’s family, Zhao Jun’s sister was detained by police. She has since lost contact. The status of the assets she held is now uncertain, leading the team to believe it necessary to inform the community of all known circumstances.
Due to lack of alternative information sources and operational funding, the team has been forced to cease operations. Should there be any further notices or developments, the team will update the community promptly.
The Multichain team, unable to access the domain account to redirect or shut down the frontend, urges users to discontinue use of Multichain services.
