In a shocking turn of events, Pepecoin, the popular meme cryptocurrency, has alleged that a group of rogue developers within its team orchestrated a significant theft of over $15 million worth of PEPE tokens. The incident has sent shockwaves through the crypto community.

an announcement to the $PEPE community:

Yesterday on August 24th, 2023, a series of unexpected transactions took place from the $PEPE multisig CEX
Wallet in which ~16 Trillion $PEPE tokens (worth roughly $15m USD) were transferred to various crypto exchanges (OKX, Binance,… pic.twitter.com/iZmXV1TAvw — Pepe (@pepecoineth) August 26, 2023

According to a statement made by a member of the Pepecoin team on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), the theft was the result of inner strife and conflicts among team members, with some individuals displaying questionable motives driven by ego and greed. The developer, who now claims to be in control of the project, revealed that this internal discord had been brewing since the early days of the $PEPE project.

Here is more data, from NotLarvaLabs founder PAULY, about one of the alleged team members responsible for the theft:

Several of Testa's cryptocurrency wallet addresses have also been disclosed:

• 0x8d2a5bdfc692ad912af77016fc75b49856c369f1
• 0xea40b0f6BA2aD77fF2FedAe98Ca67EaefCBCBE4A (badussy.eth)
• 0x9c46a675350ce1f7ca616bf4fb4e0a542295e302
• 0x40962b448aa899196906646340cb4eb61a8d49b4

Last week, over 16 trillion Pepe tokens were illicitly transferred to major cryptocurrency exchanges, including OKX, Binance, Kucoin, and Bybit, where they were subsequently sold. This influx of tokens into the market contributed to a nearly 20% decline in the value of Pepe tokens, causing concern among investors and the broader crypto community. Know more about what is pepe coin. 

On-chain analysts had previously observed concerning changes in the oversight of a developer-related wallet responsible for transaction approvals within the Pepecoin ecosystem. Instead of requiring consensus from five out of eight wallets, the approval process had been altered to only require two out of eight, raising suspicions of potential foul play.

This incident marked the first time the project's multisig wallet, which held a substantial 26 trillion tokens out of a total supply of 420 trillion, had ever initiated such transfers.

However, the individual currently claiming control of the Pepe coin project has expressed remorse for the incident and outlined plans to rebuild and fully decentralize the project in the coming months. They have even committed to burning the remaining multisig tokens, effectively removing them from circulation.

Pepecoin had been one of the standout success stories of 2023, achieving a peak market capitalization of $1.8 billion in mid-May and surpassing major meme coins like Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) in trading volumes. However, this recent controversy has cast a shadow over its otherwise meteoric rise.

As the crypto community awaits further developments and an official statement from the Pepecoin team, questions regarding the security and governance of meme coins continue to loom large in the industry.

Pepe coin is still the king of meme coins

Compared to other top meme coins like DOGE, FLOKI, and SHIB, PEPE coin supply owned by top 20 holders is much lower, showing a healthy redistribution of tokens amongst the community:

Supply of tokens owned by top 20 holders:

$PEPE 52.9%

$DOGE 53.2%

$FLOKI 65.3%

 $SHIB 67.9% 

NB: $PEPE 75% of the top 20 supply is from CEX accounts (CEX accounts are holding the coins for their customers, so it means more holders count, better redistribution)

Note: Long term, this dump of tokens is probably good for all the +150k holders of $PEPE coins -> Better Redistribution Amongst the Community!