Wonderland Puts $25M in New Sifu Project

Tom Carreras

Jul. 1, 2022

The convicted fraudster likely swayed the vote and enriched himself in the process.

Wonderland Puts $25M in New Sifu Project

Image credit: CryptosRUs/nednapa (edited by Mariia Kozyr)

Key Takeaways

Wonderland voted today to invest $25 million of its treasury into Sifu’s Vision.
Sifu’s Vision is a project started by Wonderland community member and convicted fraudster Michael Patryn.
It appears Patryn had sufficient TIME tokens to swing the vote in his favor and net at least a $23 million profit from the handover.

Wonderland has voted to pour $25 million into Sifu’s new cryptocurrency project; it appears, however, that Sifu himself had enough tokens to swing the vote in his favor and profit by at least $23 million.

Funds Are With Sifu

Wonderland is investing $25 million in Sifu’s Vision.

After a week of deliberation, the Wonderland community voted today to buy $25 million worth of SIFU tokens. The purchase was justified by the proposal as an opportunity for the community to use “a [small] portion of the treasury” to keep receiving the benefits of Sifu’s “management and communications” skills.

The proposal to invest in Sifu’s Vision, which was submitted by 0xSifu himself, was passed with 321,000 TIME tokens in favor (89.27%) and 39,000 TIME tokens against (10.37%). However, a glance at votes indicates 0xSifu was the second biggest voter: he contributed 51,000 TIME tokens to the vote through his official account. This would have been enough to ensure the passing of the proposal.

The TIME token was trading in a range from around $33 to $25 throughout the week. It therefore only cost Sifu a maximum of $1,683,000 to secure $25 million.

Wonderland is an Olympus DAO fork created on the Avalanche blockchain. The project, led by Daniele Sestagalli, suffered a dramatic downturn in January following the revelation that 0xSifu, the community member in charge of the treasury, was in fact convicted fraudster Michael Patryn.

Patryn is the co-founder of crypto exchange QuadrigaCX, which suddenly shut down after Patryn’s former partner Gerald Cotten vanished with over $169 million in investor funds.

Quite extraordinarily, Patryn has kept on participating in the Wonderland community and the broader crypto space as 0xSifu even after his identity was revealed. Sifu’s Vision is Patryn’s latest cryptocurrency venture; according to the official website, the SIFU token’s only utility is to make money.

Law enforcement has been stepping up efforts to prevent money laundering and fraud in crypto worldwide. The FBI recently added notorious scammer Ruja Ignatova to its Ten Most Wanted list.

Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned ETH and several other cryptocurrencies.

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