Co-founder of defunct exchange QuadrigaCX allegedly runs Wonderland

Published at: Jan. 27, 2022

In a series of twitter posts published Jan. 27, decentralized finance (DeFi) investigator zachxbt seemingly unveiled the true identity of previously anonymous QuadrigaCX co-founder Michael Patryn, doxxing him to be that of @0xSifu, the founder of DeFi protocol Wonderland.

1/ This needs to be shared @0xSifu is the Co-founder of QuadrigaCX, Michael Patryn. If you are unfamiliar that is the Canadian exchange that collapsed in 2019 after the founder Gerald Cotten disappeared with $169mI have confirmed this with Daniele over messages. pic.twitter.com/qSfWNnQPhr

— zachxbt.eth (@zachxbt) January 27, 2022

Following the publication of private messages between zachxbt and Daniele Sesta — the founder of Wonderland and Abracadabra — Sesta tweeted his perspective on the case, stating that “I have no bias about @0xSifu he has became a friend and part of my family and if my reputation of judgment will be hit by his dox, than be it.”

A recent Mirror.xyz blog written by Sesta reveals that he became aware of Sifu's career background just one month ago, but decided to maintain his role as treasury manager based upon principles of second chances. However, following passionate public outcry in response to his tweets this morning, Sesta took a moment to reflect upon the situation and concluded that:

"I have decided that he needs to step down till a vote for his confirmation is in place. Wonderland has the say to who manages its treasury not me or the rest of the wonderland team."

On Jan. 9, Sesta declared his bullishness on projects in which the founders and teams reveal their personal identity, stating that "Doxxed teams tokens will outperform anons ones. Pay attention."

This is a common theme witnessed in the DeFi and NFT space to support the evolution of the brand from a purely web-dimensional entity, to a global physical and digitally interactive community.

Wonderland emerged into the space in September 2020 as a fork of the Olympus DAO, launching on the Avalanche network. The community denotes themselves as “frogs,” but the decentralized reserve currency protocol hasn't made great leaps in the market as of yet.

According to current data from the website, the protocol has $360 million in total value locked (TVL), while its native asset, TIME is down almost 97.5% from all-time highs just two months ago, and down 30% today to $355.

In the last week, the founders intervened with a quantitative-easing type strategy of injecting millions of dollars into the projects in a desperate bid to stem the price bloodshed.

The QuadrigaCX saga began following the untimely passing of Gerald Cotten, the co-founder of Canadian-based cryptocurrency exchange in December 2018. In the days that followed, allegations emerged that in excess of $145 million of customers funds were misplaced, with the team citing an inability to locate the encrypted passwords to the cold storage wallets.

In the years that followed, an ongoing legal battle commenced between the estimated near 20,000 claimants and the exchange, with trustee firm Ernst & Young revealing in late 2020 that they only have approximately $29.8 million in assets to distribute in comparison to the $171 million worth of claims.

The story sparked the interest of streaming and production giant Netflix, which has recently announced that a documentary film dramatizing the mystery surrounding Cotten's death and subsequent financial fallout is in the works.

Titled, Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King, the film is set to premiere in 2022, and detail the suspected malice of QuadrigaCX in orchestrating a rug-pull as per countless personal accounts from the community base.