Riding on AI to reach a valuation of 250 million RMB? CryptoGPT raises tens of millions in funding with ChatGPT, investor DWF Labs suspected of involvement in fraud

On April 10th, CoinDesk, The Block, and several other foreign and Chinese media outlets reported a funding news about a crypto startup named "CryptoGPT." The startup raised $10 million in funding and was valued at $250 million. The company, which combines "crypto" and GPT ChatGPT in its name, has sparked controversy and even rumors linking investor DWF Labs to fraudulent cryptocurrencies.

CryptoGPT Raises $10 Million, Are Hot Keywords Really Effective?

The investment fund Ark Invest, known for its strong support of cryptocurrencies, stated in its 2023 Big Ideas report that "artificial intelligence is the most important catalyst for explosive growth, but has low correlation with blockchain." However, this does not dampen the interest of the blockchain industry in the "AI topic," as it is currently a hot topic. CryptoGPT is an extreme example of this trend.

CryptoGPT is a ZK-layer 2 blockchain based on "zero-knowledge proof," emphasizing "AI to Earn" to allow users to monetize their data to train AI models. It incorporates almost all the popular keywords in the current cryptocurrency industry, even naming its token GPT.

CryptoGPT announced on 4/10 that it had secured $10 million in funding, with a valuation of $250 million.

It seems that as long as various popular concepts are included, successful fundraising is achievable?

Backlash Against CryptoGPT's Fundraising?

Renowned crypto commentator @adamscochran stated that many teams with actual products are struggling to raise funds, while this project, which combines multiple popular keywords, received a large amount of funding. He also expressed his intention to visit those who invested in such projects with his investment portfolio, as he believes they are simply making chaotic investments.

Other prominent crypto influencers have also criticized CryptoGPT, including Cobie, who was involved in spreading rumors about Zhao Changpeng, ZachXBT who exposed fraud, and many netizens who believe it is a scam.

CryptoGPT Bot: I am ChatGPT

The CryptoGPT website includes an AI chatbot named Alex. However, upon investigation by internet users, it was discovered that Alex is actually just ChatGPT, with many humorous responses. Some sample questions and answers include:

"Are you ChatGPT?"

CryptoGPT Bot: Yes, I am a language model supported by OpenAI's GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) technology, designed to assist in various tasks and answer questions to the best of my ability.

"Has Jamila Jelani and the CryptoGPT team done anything for you?" Jamila Jelani was previously referred to as the founder, but the original post has since been deleted.

CryptoGPT Bot: As a language model AI, I do not engage in private interactions with individuals or teams. However, Jamila Jelani and the CryptoGPT team may have used OpenAI's language model (such as GPT-3) to develop their own AI applications or projects. OpenAI's language model is a powerful tool for natural language processing tasks such as text generation, translation, and sentiment analysis.

CryptoGPT does indeed use ChatGPT directly as its product.

Did CryptoGPT Fabricate Its CEO?

CryptoGPT previously announced Jamila Jelani as the founder who worked at Alibaba Group, but on the official website, she is listed as a marketing personnel. Apart from the lack of evidence, the posts and introductions of this individual are no longer visible on Twitter and the website.

Search inventory pages:

Twitter user @satoshi_trump investigated Jamila Jelani and the alleged CTO Dejan Erja, but found no evidence of their relevant work history. Despite claiming to have years of work experience, their LinkedIn pages were created only this year. He bluntly stated that Jamila Jelani may be AI-generated.

@satoshi_trump also investigated the domain registration time, Twitter account, and smart contract deployment of CryptoGPT, all of which were done this year. This contradicts the official claim that they started in the third quarter of 2022.

CryptoGPT Investors and Market Makers: DWF Labs?

CryptoGPT received $10 million in funding from DWF Labs, which has faced numerous doubts from the public. CryptoGPT's CTO Dejan Erja explained to the media that they actually received $420,000, with the rest to be invested gradually over 285 days. Additionally, DWF Labs will also serve as CryptoGPT's market maker.

However, the community's skepticism towards DWF Labs will not subside. Twitter user @nay_gmy conducted an investigation and found that this investor has many issues, including discrepancies between actual investments and claims, as well as potential connections of the executives to the cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme OneCoin.

@nay_gmy's online data investigation revealed that most of DWF Labs' investments seem to end up on exchanges once the tokens are received, which does not resemble loan activities or market-making.

DWF Labs is very active in South Korea, where many projects publicly announce new investment transactions, but most do not mention the actual amount invested by DWF Labs. For projects that disclosed the amount, the online data does not align.

@nay_gmy stated that DWF Labs has investments in many well-known projects, but the claimed amounts do not match the actual online data. Despite claiming investments exceeding $150 million, only evidence of $65 million on the blockchain was found.

What Could be DWF Labs' Business?

@nay_gmy indicated that DWF Labs, which was relatively unknown six months ago, has started investing over $200 million, only in circulating tokens stored on exchanges. @nay_gmy speculated that DWF Labs might be buying coins from project teams at a price not lower than a certain value and making profits of 10-20% through different exchanges. But why label it as "strategic cooperation" and "investment"?

DWF Labs Managing Partner Involved in OneCoin Scam

On the DWF Labs official website, Managing Partner Andrei Grachev is listed as a key team member, who claimed in an interview with CoinDesk to have been in traditional finance market-making since 2016.

@nay_gmy pointed out that since 2018, Andrei Grachev has been accused of running multiple cryptocurrency scams, including ICO fundraising that never materialized. He was even reported by Russian media in 2019 during his tenure as Huobi Russia CEO, expressing a desire to exclusively list the tokens of the fraudulent project OneCoin on Huobi.

@nay_gmy hopes there are reasonable explanations for these events, and that he might have misunderstood the situation. However, the current situation does not look promising. He also provided DWF's address for community observation.