Sui Foundation addresses $400m insider token sale, points to infra partner

The Sui Foundation denied allegations that insiders sold $400 million worth of SUI tokens during the recent price increase and maintained that the lockups were properly enforced.

The Sui Foundation found itself in hot water after a crypto analyst raised concerns about insider token sales during the recent surge in Sui’s price.

What I have found increasingly confusing over the last few weeks is the vertical rise of SUI and its quintupling of the lows (Example 1). The market is hungry for winners and he believes he has found one here, but I think the whole thing feels extremely classy for two reasons… pic.twitter.com/VKISXpdxp1

— light (@lightcrypto) 14 October 2024

In a tweet published on Monday, October 14, pseudonymous analyst Lightcrypto claimed that “insiders” sold $400 million worth of (SUI) tokens, tying certain wallets associated with the initial coin offering to the alleged sales. Lightcrypto’s claims sparked controversy within the crypto community, as analysts questioned the integrity of those building the Sui ecosystem.

“There is no comfort in the fact that the people who built this ecosystem, arguably the people who know the value of this token best, are offloading hundreds of millions of dollars of tokens to less sophisticated buyers looking for momentum.”

light crypto

In response, the Sui Foundation issued a statement on October 15 denying the allegations and emphasizing that neither its employees nor investors associated with Mysten Labs, which developed the Sui blockchain, had made any such sales. The Foundation explained that all token lockups are “implemented by qualified custodians and are constantly monitored by the Sui Foundation.” […].”

Sui Foundation wants to respond directly to this person following the claim that “Sui insiders sold $400 million worth of tokens in this process”:

1. No insiders, Foundation or Mysten Labs employees (including Mysten Labs founders) or ML investors…

— Sui (@SuiNetwork) 14 October 2024

While the foundation did not identify any individuals, it suggested that Lightcrypto may be referring to a wallet controlled by an “infrastructure partner” that holds the tokens under a locking scheme. Following this announcement, the price of SUI fell by 1.7% to $2.21. However, the token has seen a significant increase of 106% in the last 30 days, according to data on crypto.news’ price page.