Jupiter collaborates with crypto influencer Irene Zhao to unleash business potential! Online detectives, community notes reveal explosive "scam" dark history?

This article is reproduced from Crypto City

Controversy Arises from Collaboration with Irene Zhao

The decentralized cryptocurrency aggregator Jupiter recently sparked controversy by announcing a collaboration with a controversial KOL. The anonymous founder of the Solana decentralized exchange aggregator Jupiter, known as meow, announced on X platform yesterday (7/23) that they will be partnering with KOL Irene Zhao from Singapore to launch a meme coin. This news has stirred strong discontent within the cryptocurrency community, as Irene Zhao has been involved in multiple suspicious activities related to cryptocurrency in the past.

According to the announcement, this collaboration aims to improve the "meme coin ecosystem" and provide a "crypto mom" for crypto enthusiasts to rely on in times of distress. The project hopes to address significant issues in the current meme coin issuance environment, such as "false broad distribution, front-running," and "deceptive KOLs."

Meow stated, "If the project succeeds, ideally it can provide a model for other meme coins to contrast with the 'front-running, black-box control, immediate dumping, paranoid issuance ecosystem' that we currently see."

However, this announcement quickly drew criticism from many netizens, with most comments accusing Jupiter of contradicting their words with actions by supporting fraudulent activities through their collaboration with Irene Zhao. On-chain detective ZachXBT has shared a series of evidence to mock the irony of this collaboration, pointing out that Irene Zhao had engaged in opaque transactions in her So-Col project. ZachXBT accused Irene Zhao of previously engaging in secret transactions with the controversial market maker DWF, defrauding early investors without the community's knowledge.

These accusations have been documented in the Community Notes on X Twitter, with a note added stating, "Irene Zhao has been involved in multiple project scams. Be cautious when dealing with them." This note has been viewed 81,000 times as of the time of writing and is generally regarded by netizens as "referencing good sources" and "providing important contextual information."

Controversies and Responses in Early Projects

X netizen Icing specifically mentioned, "The internet remembers," and compiled the projects Irene Zhao had been involved in here, including the most controversial $SIMP and IreneDAO NFT.

So-Col ($SIMP)

Evidence provided by ZachXBT shows that in February 2023, market maker DWF Labs invested $1.5 million to purchase Irene Zhao's native $SIMP tokens from the So-Col project. Irene Zhao had promised to lock these tokens for a year until February 2024. However, blockchain data shows that in March, DWF received over 3 million $SIMP tokens and transferred around 2.6 million $SIMP to KuCoin during the same period.

ZachXBT believes that she sold $SIMP to DWF Labs without the knowledge of investors, which greatly contrasts with meow's goal of resolving the "black-box control, immediate dumping, paranoid issuance ecosystem." According to CoinGecko's data, $SIMP is now priced at only $0.0009283, with a market cap of just $453,900, indicating that the project is essentially dead.

IreneDAO

In early 2022, Irene Zhao gained significant attention in the crypto space for launching a series of NFTs called "IreneDAO," using her photo, accumulating over $5 million in revenue. The project aimed to "disrupt the creator economy." The series initially soared to 1.49 ETH, but according to data from NFTGo, the floor price is now 0.19 ETH, a drop of 87% from its all-time high.

Other controversial projects include Konomi ($KONO), which initially listed on OKX but was delisted in January. Konomi failed to achieve decentralized governance and implement the cross-chain bridge solution as planned.

Community and Individuals' Reactions

The collaboration between Jupiter and Irene Zhao has sparked widespread discussion and criticism, with many expressing dissatisfaction with Jupiter's decision. Some netizens questioned whether meow represents Jupiter.

However, some are taking a wait-and-see approach, believing that more time is needed to observe the final outcome of the collaboration.

Both individuals involved in this event have responded to the matter. Meow, the anonymous founder of Jupiter, directly commented on ZachXBT's post, stating, "The key concept here is the allocated developer market share, known airdrop distribution, and long-term liquidity adjustments. We can only understand the workings of past events as time progresses." Irene Zhao herself posted, "Regarding the false statements, a statement will be issued." (As of the time of writing, no statement has been released.)

This controversy undoubtedly offers the cryptocurrency community an opportunity for reflection on how to find a balance between innovation and risk, becoming an important issue for future development. As the collaboration progresses, whether Jupiter and Irene Zhao can resolve the dispute and gain the community's trust remains to be verified over time.