Creator of YFI fork Asuka token is said to have exit scammed

Quick Take

  • Jongchan Jang, the Korean creator of Yearn.Finance (YFI) fork Asuka token, is said to have exit scammed.
  • Doo Wan Nam, MakerDAO’s business development associate in the Asia-Pacific region, tweeted that the creator appears to have sent his DAI holdings to Binance.
  • A Binance spokesperson told The Block: “We have identified the relevant account(s). Binance will assist Korean law enforcement in their investigation once we receive a request from them.”

Jongchan Jang, the creator of Yearn.Finance (YFI) fork Asuka token and a known person in Korean crypto community, is said to have exit scammed.

Korean news outlets reported the news on Monday, saying that Jang has shut down the Asuka.Finance website as well as all its social media accounts. The price of Asuka token, once at about $1600 apiece, has reportedly tanked to about $19.

Asuka was promoted as "Dogecoin of DeFi tokens," according to a 4chan board posted on Sunday. Total supply of the token was said to be 21,000, with the first 10,000 tokens to be "farmed" in the first week.

"Unlike other YFI forks like YFII or YFFI, Asuka token will allocate 5% of premine from the initial supply for expanding rewards to other pool contracts in the future. Until then, the Governance contract for Asuka token will be established, and key holders will be elected from the farmers who mined among the most," per the 4chan board, which received numerous responses from potential investors.

To stake Asuka tokens, users had to buy MakerDAO's DAI stablecoin, put it in a Balancer liquidity pool to receive a "BPT" token, and then stake that token. BPT tokens are Balancer pool tokens which represent one's share of a Balance pool.

Doo Wan Nam, MakerDAO's business development associate in the Asia-Pacific region, tweeted that Jang, who once helped with ETH Classic, has dumped all of his holdings and said: "I feel ashamed so I will runaway now."

THE SCOOP

Keep up with the latest news, trends, charts and views on crypto and DeFi with a new biweekly newsletter from The Block's Frank Chaparro

By signing-up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
By signing-up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Doo further said that Jang appears to be sending DAI to Binance. When reached for comment, a Binance spokesperson told The Block:

"We have identified the relevant account(s). Binance will assist Korean law enforcement in their investigation once we receive a request from them. As always, we will continue to strive for heightened security both on our platform and for the greater crypto space."

It is not clear how much money users put in Asuka token. Doo said the amount involved is "relatively small," apparently below $30,000.

Users can unstake Asuka tokens, said Doo, via an Etherscan address by clicking "write" under the "exit" row.

The YFI "yield farming" craze began recently when the token was giving 500% to 1000% yield per annum. YFI is the governance token of Yearn.Finance protocol, and YFII and YFFI are its other popular forks.


© 2023 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

TAGS
DAI

About Author

Yogita Khatri is a senior reporter at The Block, covering all things crypto. As one of the earliest team members, Yogita has played a pivotal role in breaking numerous stories, exclusives and scoops. With nearly 3,000 articles under her belt, Yogita holds the records as The Block's most-published and most-read author of all time. Prior to joining The Block, Yogita worked at crypto publication CoinDesk and The Economic Times, where she wrote on personal finance. To contact her, email: [email protected]. For her latest work, follow her on X @Yogita_Khatri5.