Magazine and Gray Wolf’s investigation concluded that Bitcoin was not double spent in Ethereum’s 2014 ICO, but illicit actors may have laundered their dirty crypto.
A decade after Ethereums initial coin offering, which raised $18.5 million in Bitcoin by selling roughly 60 million Ether, debates about whether different forms of manipulation tactics were involved still swirl in social media.
One theory questions whether the Ethereum founders double-spent investors funds to artificially inflate the success of the ICO while allowing them to close the sale with a larger share of Ether under their control.
Magazine conducted a joint investigation with Canada-based blockchain forensics experts at Gray Wolf Analytics to determine whether the ICO included double-spending of Bitcoin, an activity deemed fraudulent by the presales terms and conditions. The investigation specifically looked for any Bitcoin that entered the presale wallet, was withdrawn and then looped back in.
