an employee was fired for scamming a memecoin

A couple of days ago, Uniswap founder Hayden Adams announced the dismissal of an employee due to unacceptable behavior regarding the memecoin Frenstech (FRENS). 

Adams added that behavior such as this is not acceptable at Uniswap. 

Uniswap

Uniswap is a decentralized exchange (DEX) on which anyone can do whatever they want, if allowed by protocol. 

Hence no behavior, if allowed, can be defined as unacceptable by protocol, though Uniswap is not just a decentralized protocol. 

In fact, behind the development of the protocol is Uniswap Labs, which is a software house that is for all intents and purposes a company. 

The governance of the Uniswap protocol is decentralized, but the software house working on its development is not. There are unethical behaviors within the software house that are considered unacceptable. 

Moreover, according to what they state on their official X profile, the website of Uniswap Labs is blog.uniswap.org, so the company should also be the owner and operator of the official Uniswap website. 

Thus, it should come as no surprise that even though the DEX is a decentralized protocol, Hayden Adams was able to fire an employee. 

Uniswap: the story related to the FRENS memecoin

According to a statement by X user UniswapVillain, and shared by Adams, Frenstech is a memecoin added on Uniswap by just one Uniswap Labs developer, whose name on X is AzFlin. AzFlin was an employee of the company. 

UniswapVillain discovered that AzFlin, after adding the memecoin to Uniswap, attacked it by moving 14 ETH from the Base chain.

Base is the new blockchain created by Coinbase that serves as layer-2 for Ethereum.

Although it was launched only a few days ago, it has already been the protagonist of another borderline illegal affair always related to a memecoin. 

In practice, through this move AzFlin removed the liquidity of Frenstech (whose ticker is FRENS) that he had added on Uniswap and pocketed 14 ETH in fees.

He then also sold the tokens he had removed from liquidity.

Indeed, such behavior is unacceptable on the part of those working at Uniswap Labs, and although these events have not yet been confirmed, Adams’ admission should be taken as factual. 

FrensTech 

FrensTech is a memecoin that is trying to ride the hype generated by the new friend.tech platform.

It is a token on Base, and apparently was created by AzFlin himself. 

In all fairness, calling this type of token “memecoin” is probably reductive, because instead it looks for all intents and purposes like a shitcoin, or even a scamcoin. 

Which is to say, if its real purpose is to take money from the fools who think it is a real memecoin, then it should be called scamcoin, and not memecoin. Indeed, referring to it as memecoin will only help who created it. 

For instance, the first real memecoin, Dogecoin, has been in existence for almost ten years, and it started out as a joke. Memes generally originate as a kind of joke as well, and they do not promise any kind of profit. 

However, if behind the design of a new token launch is the goal of draining money from those who believe whatever is said to promote it, then it is not a real memecoin but a shitcoin, or a real scamcoin. 

The memecoin scam on Uniswap

In this particular case there are those who openly speak of a rug pull, i.e. a real scam. 

The FrensTech “project” does not even have an official website, and now that it no longer has liquidity on Uniswap, it does not even have any tradable FRENS token on the crypto markets. 

The latest tweet posted on X states that the shares purchased automatically with fees have been changed to AzFlin. 

Uniswap Labs knows the true identity of AzFlin, so it is not impossible that the individual will be sued for fraud sooner or later. 

Unfortunately given the thin air behind the vast majority of memecoin projects, it is to be expected that initiatives like this will continue to exist in the future, and the more successful they become the more they will spread. 

The underlying problem is that there seems to be market demand for these real shitcoins, most likely because there are still many amateur investors and speculators who have not figured out what a memecoin is, so much so that they think they are serious projects. 

Oftentimes there isn’t even anything concrete linking memecoins to the memes they are inspired by, such as with regard to the PEPE project. So in these cases it is not even true that the more the meme spreads the more the memecoin is appreciated. 

In these cases, mere hope unfortunately prevails over reason, and drives many people to throw away their money just to chase a dream with no concrete foundation.