BEIJING, June 18, 2018: Over the past two weeks, a major selloff of Skycoin has been taking place, triggering market prices levels for skycoin to also drop drastically. Multiple events led to this significant fall in the market price; however, the primary contributing factor was the recent discovery that the previous Skycoin China marketing team (EVOLAB) had embezzled approximately 100,000 skycoins (SKY) over the past six months. When this was discovered, and when EVOLAB subsequently failed to return or account for the embezzled coins, the Skycoin team terminated their business relationship with the EVOLAB team.
This impact was in part direct, but in part due to uncertainty caused by these events. The Skycoin team has taken steps to rectify this situation and eliminate further negative impact, direct or indirect, on the market as a result of these events. Additionally, this update outlining the actual events will serve to dispel rumors and clarify and as yet unanswered stakeholder issues.
On June 13, 2018 at approximately 9:30 PM, shortly after the discovery of the embezzlement, marketing team members Sam Sing Fong, Mary Li, Xiangdong Yan, and Jesse Sun Fei led nine individuals as they burglarized Synth’s home. Holding Synth and his wife hostage for six hours, they proceeded to threaten and rob them both. Fortunately, the nine member team was only able to extract 18.88 Bitcoin and 6466 SKY over the course of the robbery. This is thanks to wallet security measures Synth had in place.
The nine member gang also unsuccessfully attempted to steal the Skycoin ecosystem design format.
Currently, the total number of SKY stolen by the EVOLAB marketing team is being determined via a thorough investigation. Addresses containing stolen coins are being documented as part of the investigation.
In order to protect the interests of skycoin holders, as a response to these events a temporary black-listing function was implemented. The future use of this function will be subject to discussion and voting by the entire skycoin community over the next few months.
Primary SKY exchanges were notified of these events and asked to temporarily freeze the accounts of all criminal suspects. Upon conclusion of the investigation, frozen assets will be addressed and handled. The Skycoin legal team will provide updates and information on the aftermath of the armed robbery at a later time.
Several Skycoin community social media accounts and Telegram groups were created by the EVOLAB team. In response to the termination of Skycoin’s business relationship with EVOLAB, Skycoin community members can now stay connected by subscribing to the groups currently listed on the Skycoin website (www.skycoin.net)
The following channels are considered official moving forward:
- Skycoin Global Community Telegram: https://t.me/Skycoin
- Skycoin China Community Telegram: https://t.me/skycoinchina
- Skycoin China Community WeChat account: skycoin-china
- Skycoin China Community WeChat public account: skycoin666
Applicable exchanges have provided notification that the accounts holding stolen SKY have been frozen. This will limit any further market impact.
The entire Skycoin team would like to apologize to our community for the negative impact of these events. Skycoin is working closely with all involved parties to rectify this situation and move forward. We look forward to continuing our progress on the project and hope to mitigate any delays or slowing.
Skycoin is committed to upholding the trust our team has been building within the community since its inception. As stated by Skycoin co-founder Synth, “These are the architects of the new internet, the most advanced blockchain application platform in the world. We trust them, and they will deliver. We are continuing to focus on both the technological and the economic aspects of blockchain, building sustainable closed-loop economies within a blockchain ecosystem.”
