Trove Markets perpetrator is Chinese crypto scammer, report

The “real” perpetrator behind the disastrous launch of Trove’s token, which shed $19 million from its value in just minutes, is a China-based owner of multiple crypto scam sites, according to the crypto sleuth “Eyeonchains.”

Decentralized perp market Trove Markets was plagued by controversy this month after it failed to meet investor expectations and decided to keep $9.4 million out of the $11.4 million raised via an initial coin offering (ICO).

The firm compounded these problems when it reneged on infrastructure promises, leading many to direct their anger towards the pseudonymous X account “Unwise,” which is believed to be one of the project’s founders.

Eyeonchains, however, believes that Unwise was just a “frontman puppet” and that the “real actor” and liquidity provider broker is someone named Jin Qing Qing from Shanghai, China.

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Eyeonchains traced transactions from the ICO funds to various deposits across crypto firms Binance, Bybit, Roobot, Gate, Coinsquare, and Lbank.

From here, they used Arkham Intelligence to discover that the Gate deposit address was an early buyer of the TAKER token. This address had also received roughly $80,000 directly from the team behind PoP Planet.

Then, after a “deeper investigation,” Eyeonchains found that both of these firms are connected by the same individual who appears under the Taker domain, Jin Qing Qing.

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They believe that Jin is behind these projects and that they may have been able to utilise “high-level connections” and a $4 million investment from the venture capital firm Foresight Ventures.

Numerous phone numbers and email addresses were also found under Jin’s name, along with 24 domains that appear to include multiple crypto scam and casino sites.

Eyeonchains suggests the evidence shows Jin might be a “professional max extractor,” and is deliberately trying to “obscure personal identity.”

The findings and details surrounding Jin have been passed on to “the appropriate authorities and they now have all the necessary material to identify the individual,” Eyeonchains claims.