Investors are furious over ZKasino’s debut as a new decentralized gaming network since the developers abruptly changed their plans, which prevented players from redeeming their bridging ether after the platform became live.
Lido has received the $33 million in invested users as it works to filter out what it refers to as “noise and FUD.”
ZKasino appeared to be just another cryptocurrency idea at first glance. For its Series A round, it had disclosed a $350 million valuation, supported by $26 million from investors, including cryptocurrency exchange MEXC. The renowned security company Certik audited its smart contracts (after ChatGPT’s initial pass).
The testnets for the project were up and running. In order to gain extra $ZKAS when the protocol opened, more than 10,000 participants had bridged over $33 million in ether to ZKasino’s network by the time the project launched. Ultimately, the initiative made the guarantee that consumers could seek the return of the ether. But there were indicators of caution.
ZKasino’s event was canceled due to a flood in Dubai, although the team had already been accused of poor management by ZachXBT, a blockchain expert and former colleague. The team behind ZKasino is accused by a user on behalf of the ZigZag exchange of stealing the project’s first funding from ZigZag’s treasury.
In addition to more claims of underpaid contractors and dubious business methods, ZKasino’s founder, also known as Derivatives Monke, once made headlines when they put an extremely explicit movie online as a satirical joke. Nevertheless, they eventually issued an apology.
Investors were shocked to learn that ZKasino’s original plans had changed when the company finally launched yesterday, following multiple delays. As a “favor” to “provide a seamless transition and a superior user experience,” the project claimed that instead of allowing users to redeem their ether as intended, it was immediately vested into $ZKAS tokens.
Users are protesting
Members of the public expressed their outrage upon discovering the modification, pointing out that ZKasino’s website had altered its wording on ether returns and that users’ $ZKAS would now vest over a fifteen-month period. ZKasino has been accused of being a rug puller, and personal data concerning derivatives have been taken from thousands of accounts. Outraged investors who want to get their money back post monkeys online.
Debit card exchange MEXC canceled its $ZKAS listing, and token launchpads Ape Terminal and AIT Launchpad canceled ZKasino’s IDO after the launch. Nevertheless, the majority of investors were only able to observe the blockchain as their $33 million in ETH was placed into the Lido staking exchange.
The team has generally kept silent over the commotion, but yesterday Derivatives Monke took the time to disparage a critic on X. The project announced today that, when the protocol change goes live on Ethereum, it intends to implement EIP-3074. This announcement was very benign. Quoting from the post on X, Derivatives Monke pledged to continue developing.
