Intrigue, controversy, and high-stakes drama are the currency of the crypto world, and Adam Cochran has found himself at the heart of it all. As the story of the Cipher rug pull continues to unravel, one can’t help but wonder: Will Adam Cochran hold himself up to the moral code he holds the likes of Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance?
As per his tweets in October, Adam Cochran has been an avid Cipher supporter. On October 21st, he tweeted on X, “Roughly 24 hours till the @cipher_cores airdrop. If you’ve not been farming, you should at least set up an account before the drop as pre-airdrop accounts get a perm boost.” Thad did not go well with the renowned crypto sleuth ZachXBT.
The Cipher rug pull
So what project was Adam backing and why? On October 10th, cipher.fan, a SocialFi project similar to friend.tech, revealed its live presence on Arbitrum. With that announcement, users could buy and trade “shares” of personal accounts on X called Cores, which are similar to Keys on friend.tech.
Using cipher.fan, users could earn points to be eligible for a $CYPHER airdrop slated on October 15. The team announced that a total of 100 million $CYPHER tokens would be distributed via airdrop. This represented 10% of the entire supply.
The project became operational at the end of September on the cipher.rip domain. The project has been upgraded using cipher.fan, which includes UI optimization, algorithm improvements, and other features.
According to reports, that plan did not follow through. Due to unsustainable operational costs, the Arbitrum-based Friend.tech clone has decided to slam the brakes ahead of its planned airdrop. The move has perplexed users while highlighting the team’s robust multisig wallet.
Zatis, the founder of Pseudonymous Cypher Fan, announced the project’s closure on October 24, just hours before its CYPHER token airdrop was due to begin as a reward for active users.
The Cypher Fan’s business model, according to Zatis, is unprofitable, and the app is riddled with bot activity rather than real users. Notably, the project’s social media profiles have been deactivated since October 19.
Adam Cochran’s response to the failure
After the supposed rug pull. Crypto detective ZachXBT called out Adam for the support rendered to Cipher. ZachXBT wrote on X:
Come on Adam you have gone on as a cautionary threadooor against numerous projects then turn around to shill some new ponzi fork. Referencing Nekoz after Solstarter and Linkpad is laughable as he is easily one of the biggest influencer grifters here.
ZachXBT
Even after the failure of the project, Adam remains a fan, writing, “Soooo according to Zach, Nekoz has done some shitty stuff. Had no idea, just knew him to be active on Cipher and put in ETH. Doesn’t change my view on Cipher – but, lesson learned to look into other investors more.”
On-chain sleuth ZachXBT also confirmed the team’s wallet. This multisig collected fees from blockchain-based social network transactions and activity. So, now, what happens to the project investors as ZachXBT puts it across to Adam: “How about all of the people who bought into shares of people as a result of your posts and woke up to a huge losses? “
Adam’s does not like Binance very much
Adam Cochran, a well-known Binance critic, recently tweeted his “last round of FUD attacks on Binance.” Cochran referred to the post as his final warning against the exchange, claiming that he had persuaded enough individuals of the dangers of using Binance.
Nonetheless, he highlighted three crucial points for those who remained open-minded to examine, stressing that the trade involves unwarranted risks with no predictable reward.
First, he expressed reservations regarding Binance’s use of the TrueUSD (TUSD) stablecoin in promotions or as collateral. He claims that TUSD is not a suitable collateral due to its low volume and limited usage. Furthermore, Cochran stated that TUSD is a project controlled by Justin Sun, the founder of TRON (TRX), whom he regards as a problematic figure.
Furthermore, the critic pointed out that Binance’s US subsidiary has been reluctant to cooperate with US courts in terms of producing proof of asset custody. As a result, Cochran wondered why Binance, the largest and most profitable cryptocurrency exchange, would embark on the aforementioned risky ventures.
In addition, Cochran questioned Binance’s presence in minor markets with geopolitical risk. He mentioned the transfer of the Russian market to a Binance Cloud initiative, as well as the presence of accounts associated with SDN-flagged individuals. Furthermore, he alluded to the exchange’s alleged opposition to audits in US courts.
