Notable figures in the decentralized finance (DeFi) customs plant themselves in hot h2o after joining a group to melt up a MEME-inspired token with the apparent intention of dumping on unsuspecting investors. Grouping members merits the whole matter was simply a joke that'due south been taken the wrong way.

Leaked chat logs point that the FEW token 'experiment' was conceived by Thought Markets' co-founder Sam Ratnaker, who started the Telegram group for the project on September 22. EthHub'due south Anthony Sassano, Rocket NFT'due south Alex Masmej, and Twitter user 'DeFi Dude' were amon among those invited to the aqueduct.

Ratnaker took to Twitter to announce the project, describing it as "an experiment to create value for the ecosystem." FEW'due south first 50 holders would each exist airdropped 769.23 tokens that would be vested for ane twelvemonth.

The projection was intended to follow in the footsteps of MEME — an anarchic token inspired by criticism of the DeFi space that airdropped its supply to Telegram users and then gained 900% in one month (though information technology has pulled back more recently). Sassano confessed to having been ane of MEME'southward original airdrop recipients, revealing that he sold the tokens prior to project gathering momentum, missing out on more than than $600,000 in profits every bit of the token's September 22 high.

However, FEW token failed to replicate MEME's success, with hundreds of hopeful investors crashing intthe Telegram grouping and an imposter token being launched on Uniswap inside hours of the declaration.

Screenshots of the group's chat logs quickly began to leak, including a mail service from Sassano stating "we demand people to dump on" and apparent confessions from Masmej and DeFi Dude that the projection's sole motivation was to engineer a "pump" that would line the pockets of those who missed out on profiting from MEME.

Responding to the backlash, grouping members claimed the whole thing was just an inside joke. Many members have burned their FEW tokens including Sassono who made a long mea culpa stating:

"Since this screenshot is going to broadcast like crazy I desire to get one thing direct — it was me making a joke when this group was but a few people. I only sent my $FEW tokens to the burn accost to testify that I'm non going to 'dump' on anyone."

The FEW controversy comes later on a contempo surge in unaudited and forked DeFi protocols that have included both dramatic successes and failures.

The high risk/reward ratio in the DeFi sector inspired crypto custody provider Trustology to offer a "smart contract safeguard" or "DeFi firewall" intended to protect institutional clients against poorly vetted protocols.