- An inside joke regarding the bankruptcy of Wrapped Ethereum on Saturday has pushed influencers to describe it as only a “shitpost” after the community members thought it was the truth.
The fear, variability, and doubt of wETH bankruptcy apparently started to make the rounds on Saturday, with fake rumors accusing that wETH is not supported by 1:1 Ether and is bankrupt.
Blockchain creator and donor to the ERC-721A token standard “cygaar” was among the first to make the joke, prior to verifying in an ensuing post that it was in reality a “shitpost” to look who was studying his writing.
In reality, just a day prior to this, he tweeted that “wETH can not ever go bankrupt” and that “wETH will always be exchangeable 1:1 with ETH.”
An Ethereum educator, and the founder of the Daily Gwei, was one to get in on the wETH joke with his own satire post on November 27 but had to shed light on later that the original post was a “shitpost” after going through the replies.
A person I have known for more than ten years, who I consider trustworthy, is convinced that WETH will depeg and experience a total collapse. I don’t know anything concrete, but if I were exposed, I would be concerned.
— sassal.eth
The co-founder of Gnosis, Martin Koppelmann was another person to join the joke, purporting in a Sunday Tweet for his 38,800 Twitter followers that wETH is now not supported by ETH and that we may witness a bank run on withdrawing wETH soon.”
After some hours, he said he anticipated the joke did not result in too much confusion linking to a thread that described the joke for those who does’t had the idea.
As ETH gets constantly burned wrapped ETH (WETH) is no longer fully backed by it. We might see a bank run on redeeming WETH soon.
— Martin Köppelmann
The head of research at Matrixport, a crypto financial services platform, Markus Thielen has also verified that there is no truth in the wETH “shitposts.”
The logic of wETH is developed by smart contracts and it is not managed by a centralized body, he described:
“I am not too worried about wETH as it is a smart contract and not kept by a centralized exchange. As the smart contract is open, it can be cross-checked for viruses or faults.”
Meanwhile, recent FUD against Wrapped Bitcoin can be justified, pointing to rumors that FTX may have printed 100,000 wBTC out of the blue, as FTX’s November 11 bankruptcy filing does not represent any Bitcoin on the balance sheet of FTX, Thielen stated.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2022/11/28/weth-bankruptcy-joke-goes-viral-the-owner-calls-it-a-shitpost/