TechFlow News August 25 — PEPE, the MEME token, announced on its official social media channel to the PEPE community that three former team members logged into the multisig address and stole 16 trillion PEPE tokens. The announcement stated: "Yesterday (August 24, 2023), a series of unexpected transactions occurred in the PEPE multi-signature CEX wallet. Approximately 16 trillion PEPE tokens (worth around $15 million) from the wallet were transferred to various cryptocurrency exchanges (OKX, Binance, Kucoin, and Bybit), with the required number of signers reduced from 5/8 to 2/8. Currently, 10 trillion tokens remain in the multisig wallet along with one signer. I can assure you that these tokens and this Twitter account are now under secure control. I want to explain everything that happened and provide as much transparency as possible to the PEPE community.
Since its inception, PEPE has suffered from internal conflicts, with certain individuals within the team turning malicious due to ego and greed. Now, PEPE has completely shed these burdens, and the path forward is bright. They had previously hindered the team's ability to donate or purchase using the multisig tokens due to unavailability for signing, disagreements, and weeks of being unreachable. The original multisig setup required 3 out of 4 signers for approval.
Yesterday, these three former team members returned behind my back, accessed the multisig address, stole 16 trillion out of the 26 trillion tokens held in the multisig, and sent them to exchanges for sale. Then, they removed themselves from the multisig arrangement, attempting to sever all ties with PEPE, deleting their social media accounts entirely, leaving me only with a message stating that the multisig had been updated and that I now have full control.
It appears that most, if not all, of the tokens stolen yesterday from the multisig have already been rapidly sold on OKX and Binance. The remaining 10 trillion tokens in the old multisig will be moved to a new wallet where they will be securely held until used or burned. I’ve been negotiating with owners of certain website domains and usernames, considering acquiring them using PEPE tokens. Once I complete these potential purchases or any donations of PEPE from the multisig, I will burn the remaining portion of these multisig-held tokens."
Previously, it was reported that the PEPE team’s multisig address transferred $15.08 million worth of PEPE tokens to DEXs and changed the multisig wallet threshold from 5/8 to 2/8.
