Rogue Pepecoin team members blamed for $16M PEPE multsig withdrawal

The circumstances behind the mysterious $16 million withdrawal from the Pepecoin (PEPE) project’s multisig pockets have seemingly been revealed, with the finger pointed at three rogue ex-team members.
On Aug. 24, the worth of PEPE plunged by roughly 15% amid fears of a possible rug pull after the group noticed that $16 million value of PEPE was withdrawn from the Pepe multisig pockets and despatched to a number of exchanges.
1/4
1 hour in the past, the Pepe multisig pockets, modified the quantity of signatures required on their multisig from a 5/8 to 2/8. This comes after sending $15.7 million value of $PEPE to exchanges.
A breakdown of what we all know: pic.twitter.com/bxBxp6Nzqz
— ASXN (@asxn_r) August 24, 2023
Clearing up the matter in an Aug. 25 put up on X (previously Twitter), one of many nameless founding members behind the challenge offered a group announcement from the official Pepecoin account, detailing what they declare had occurred.
According to the assertion, three team members abruptly stole the funds from the multisig after which deserted the challenge, leaving it in full management of the remaining member.
“The multi-sig was set up to require 3/4 signers present for an approval. Yesterday these 3 ex-team members came back behind my back, logged onto the multi-sig, stole 16 Trillion/ 60% of the 26 trillion multi-sig tokens, and sent them to exchanges to sell.”
“They then removed themselves from the multisig in an attempt to absolve any association to $PEPE, deleting all of their social accounts and leaving me behind nothing but a message stating ‘the multisig has been updated, you are now in full control,’” they added.
an announcement to the $PEPE group:
Yesterday on August twenty fourth, 2023, a collection of sudden transactions passed off from the $PEPE multisig CEX
Wallet through which ~16 Trillion $PEPE tokens (value roughly $15m USD) have been transferred to numerous crypto exchanges (OKX, Binance,… pic.twitter.com/iZmXV1TAvw— Pepe (@pepecoineth) August 26, 2023
The founding member claimed that the X account and the remaining 10 trillion PEPE within the multsig at the moment are in protected arms, with the funds set to be transferred to a brand new pockets the place “they will safely rest until a use or burn arises.”
It was additionally asserted that these former members have been troublesome to work with since Pepecoin launched in April and had held the challenge again from progress towards its numerous targets.
Related: PEPE whale seizes dip opportunity, buys $529K worth of tokens
Moving ahead, the remaining member claimed they may do what’s proper for the PEPE group now that the unhealthy actors have gone.
“Since its inception, $PEPE has unfortunately been plagued by inner strife with a portion of the team being bad actors led by big egos and greed,” they stated, including that:
“As I process what has happened, I look forward to a future for $PEPE where I will be able to operate with the community and tokens’ best intention in mind and no negligent team members and locked multisig situation blocking me from doing what is best.”
The telegram group for $PEPE is presently locked down, the previous telegram account for the group proprietor was hacked and the group was taken over. In the method of making an attempt to regain entry or make a brand new one. All official communication for $PEPE will happen through the @pepecoineth… pic.twitter.com/lQFTu02jub
— Pepe (@pepecoineth) August 26, 2023
The response was blended within the feedback, with some in help or bullish on the announcement, whereas others have been questioning the reality of those claims.

At the time of writing, the worth of PEPE has elevated by 5.7% over the previous 24 hours to sit down at $0.000000895278, with a present market cap of $382.7 million, in accordance with knowledge from CoinGecko.
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