Serious allegations have emerged against Kevin Pawlak, the former head of OpenSea Ventures, raising concerns about his involvement in pump-and-dump schemes within the cryptocurrency and NFT world.
These claims were made public by NFT Ethics, a news account that specializes in NFT investigations. In this post, we’ll look at the facts, alternate explanations, and the potential influence on the Bitcoin community as it unfolds.
Kevin Pawlak, OpenSea Ventures’ ex-head is under investigation
Kevin Pawlak, known as ‘Sisyphus’ in certain crypto circles, is at the center of these troubling allegations. NFT Ethics claims that Pawlak has been involved in questionable business activities and pump-and-dump schemes under the pseudonyms ‘@0xSisyphus’ and ‘0xMagellan.’
These allegations gained traction last month when NFT Ethics began its investigation into Pawlak’s activities. They identified Pawlak as the owner of the Ethereum account ‘@0xSisyphus’ by comparing transaction timestamps between ‘pawlak.eth’ and ‘sisyphus.eth’ addresses, CryptoSlate reported.
Several Ethereum addresses, beginning with “0xBB5B,” registered domains associated with Pawlak on October 4, 2021, according to blockchain records. Among them were ‘kevinpawlak.eth,’ ‘pavvlak.eth,’ ‘pawlak.eth,’ and ‘kevinpawlak.eth.’ The study also revealed that the addresses ‘pawlak.eth’ and’sisyphus.eth’ minted ‘Zorbs’ tokens within a minute of each other and’sismo.eth’ DAO tokens within a 10-minute timeframe.
Furthermore, anonymous sources confirmed NFT Ethics’ findings, revealing that Kevin Pawlak did indeed operate under the alias ‘Sisyphus.’ The TV station also claimed Pawlak was involved in a $60 million AnubisDAO rug pull in October 2021 and was a “Rollbit shill,” according to CryptoSlate.
The Anubis rug pull
NFT Ethics provided an alternative scenario ten days after the initial claims, claiming that the Anubis event was a “premeditated rug pull” coordinated by ‘Sisyphus.’ The stolen cash, they claimed, was being laundered using PEPE tokens, CryptoSlate added.
According to their investigation, Pawlak marketed the Anubis project on Discord using the alias ‘Sisyphus’ a day before the rug pull. Pawlak claimed to have spent $420,000 in the initiative and pledged more the next day, according to a user who videotaped his passionate endorsement.
Ethan Cheung, a 19-year-old in control of the Anubis project’s money, claimed to get an email from ‘Sisyphus’ containing a malicious PDF file that corrupted his smartphone and wallet on the day of the rug pull. According to NFT Ethics, numerous people agreed with Cheung’s version of events. In response, ‘Sisyphus’ published a blog post in which he attempted to frame Cheung for the rug pull.
Furthermore, NFT Ethics provided Anubis team chat records from October 27 to 29, 2021, implying that ‘Sisyphus’ had a key role in the Anubis project, making vital decisions about communication, technology, and financing.
Yes. We have provided on-chain proof, and have confirmed his identity with multiple sources. Also the journalist Tim Copeland from The Block independently confirmed his identity (see screenshot). pic.twitter.com/PwtA6QDtzt
— NFT Ethics (@NFTethics) October 6, 2023
To add credibility to these allegations, journalist Tim Copeland of The Block claimed to have confirmed ‘Sisyphus’s’ identity through undisclosed sources, as seen in the tweet above.
Luckily, CryptoSlate reached out to OpenSea and here is their official statement: “Kevin is a former employee who left the company in June of 2023. He had a limited scope while at OpenSea- where he worked in a non-management position. We have no awareness of his involvement with the projects in question. Furthermore, we have no connection to, or information about, the projects in question, as they took place before his time at OpenSea.”
These allegations raise important questions about transparency and trust in the cryptocurrency space. As investigations continue and more information surfaces, the crypto community closely monitors this developing situation, hoping for clarity and a path forward toward a more secure and ethical digital landscape.
Featured image credit: Maxim Hopman/Unsplash
