NFT Tycoon Tied To $60 Million AnubisDAO Rug Pull

Kevin Pawlak, the previous head of ventures on the NFT platform OpenSea, finds himself entangled in an internet of accusations surrounding the notorious AnubisDAO rug pull of 2021. Nevertheless, OpenSea maintains that there is no such thing as a concrete proof linking their former worker to the alleged misdeeds, regardless of current claims circulating on social media.

A thread on X not too long ago surfaced, instigated by an nameless account often known as NFT Ethics. On this thread, NFT Ethics immediately tagged OpenSea and demanded a response concerning allegations implicating Kevin Pawlak. These claims steered that Pawlak was not solely linked to the pseudonymous identification “0xSisyphus” but additionally allegedly concerned in “varied doubtful enterprise dealings.”

1/ Expensive @OpenSea, what do you consider the truth that your Head of Ventures, Kevin Pawlak, has been concerned in varied very doubtful enterprise dealings (e.g. Anubis) and pump & dump schemes underneath his pseudonymous identification @0xSisyphus (& 0xMagellan)? pic.twitter.com/GzIVLJirLE

— NFT Ethics (@NFTethics) October 6, 2023

Is Kevin Pawlak ‘0xSisyphus?’

NFT Ethics had initially made these startling allegations in opposition to Pawlak the month prior, following an intensive investigation. On the time, they concluded that Pawlak was the proprietor of the X account @0xSisyphus. Their findings had been primarily based on a comparability of transactions and corresponding timestamps between pawlak.eth and sisyphus.eth addresses.

1/ Some time again we did a fast investigation to see who @0xSisyphus was and we got here to the conclusion that it’s Kevin Pawlak, the pinnacle of OpenSea Ventures. The timestamps on the pawlak.eth and sisyphus.eth addresses completely match (see subsequent tweets). https://t.co/qLRAARmvFa pic.twitter.com/acX1GqsHhV

— NFT Ethics (@NFTethics) September 17, 2023

To additional bolster their case, NFT Ethics delved into blockchain knowledge. Their investigation revealed that an Ethereum tackle commencing with “0xBB5B” had registered domains like kevinpawlak.eth, pavvlak.eth, pawlak.eth, and kevinpawlak.eth on Oct. 4, 2021. This discovery added a layer of complexity to the allegations surrounding Pawlak.

Furthermore, NFT Ethics disclosed that each addresses, pawlak.eth and sisyphus.eth, had participated within the minting of Zorbs tokens inside a minute of one another. They’d additionally engaged within the minting of sismo.eth DAO tokens inside a span of simply 10 minutes.

Cryptocurrencies complete market cap at $1.05 trillion in the present day: TradingView.com

The AnubisDAO Incident

The guts of those allegations stems from the AnubisDAO rug pull incident of October 2021. AnubisDAO had efficiently raised a staggering 13,556 Ether, equal to $60 million on the time, from keen crypto traders. Nevertheless, roughly 20 hours later, these funds had been mysteriously transferred to numerous pockets addresses, leading to fast losses for the unsuspecting traders.

That thread is among the most midcurve issues I’ve learn. They make many assumptions off unrelated occasions with out details.

FixedFloat does tons in quantity and similar with the opposite exchanges talked about. Right here is the supply tackle of the April 2023 FixedFloat insider PEPE buys I… https://t.co/0kG2M7DNVi

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) September 29, 2023

In response to those accusations, blockchain sleuth ZachXBT voiced skepticism, describing the thread as “probably the most mid-curve” he had encountered. He steered that most of the assumptions concerning 0xSisyphus’ function within the alleged rug pull had been primarily based on “unrelated occasions with out details.”

Doubts Linger

Including to the intrigue, 0xSisyphus had beforehand provided a considerable 1,000 ETH bounty to anybody able to figuring out the pockets tackle answerable for draining the AnubisDAO pool. This act, coupled with the engagement of regulation enforcement in each america and Hong Kong, raises doubts concerning the validity of the current accusations in opposition to Pawlak.

As OpenSea distances itself from these claims, the crypto group continues to grapple with the mysterious net of allegations, unsure of the true identification behind 0xSisyphus and the occasions surrounding the AnubisDAO rug pull.

Featured picture from Paxful