- Matter Labs has refuted accusations that its NFT project was marred with insider minting activities
- Some of those who leveled insider trading claims against the project said that the company’s employees sent the collectibles to friends and other ineligible members
- Matter Labs maintained that the NFTs were minted by eligible collectors who weren’t employees
zkSync’s creator Matter Labs has distanced itself from accusations that it allowed its employees to have a head start in mining collectibles tied to the Libertas Omnibus NFT collection. According to those accusing the project of the behavior, Matter Labs’ employees sent the NFTs to family, friends and other people who weren’t qualified to mint the collectibles. In its defense, the web3 firm said that only eligible candidates minted the collectibles, adding that its employees weren’t allowed to participate, raising questions on whether the employees’ friends minted the tokens on their own.
NFTs Minted to Employee Addresses?
Matter Labs disclosed that the mint was open to people who had previously traded the top 100 NFTs on the zkSync network and those who attended the platform’s event. The firm added that the mint was successful and followed the right procedure. The web3 firm also noted that holding Libertas Omnibus NFTs didn’t guarantee eligibility to participate in the ZK airdrop.
According to a blockchain researcher known on X as soEasy, some Matter Labs employees were able to use their positions “to mint NFTs to their own addresses,” some of which didn’t meet the criteria to perform such activities.
Zksync-internal cheat
In September, I discovered this issue and have been tracking it ever since.
I have published all the data I have gathered on GitHub and Mirror. The data includes on-chain hash values, addresses, ZKSync team members, and their actions to seek profits using…
— soEasy (@Easy17182589) June 18, 2024
Employees Allegedly Claimed 43 Million ZK Tokens
The researcher noted that some employees illegally added themselves to a whitelist which enabled them to conduct a mint. soEasy further claimed that some of the employees later sold the collectibles for a profit while others used them to claim 43 million free ZK tokens.
An investigation by Cointelegraph disclosed that some Matter Labs employees were added to a whitelist and minted the NFTs, collaborating with soEasy’s research.
Although Matter Labs has refuted NFT insider trading claims, it’s to be seen whether it’ll change its stand depending on how the web3 community reacts to the revelations.
