Allegations have surfaced concerning a substantial loss of over $1 million in cryptocurrency by a trader purportedly due to the 0L network's hard fork. The incident, reported on May 8 by an anonymous trader identified as NN, was attributed to a hard fork initiated without community consensus by the team behind the 0L Network ($LIBRA). This fork, purportedly sparked by a "rogue core" member, resulted in a 4% reduction in total supply and the burning of innocent users' wallets, including those who had acquired tokens almost two years prior.
The anonymous trader disclosed that they had purchased 147 million Libra tokens, equivalent to approximately $1.47 million at the time, back in February 2023, with intentions to contribute to marketing efforts within the protocol. Despite the token's significant devaluation since May 3, plummeting by more than 58%, NN pointed out that the team had been aware of a vulnerability for over two years, alleging that certain insiders exploited it. However, the team allegedly opted to disregard the issue until the token's value surged.
The hard fork stemmed from a smart contract bug enabling insiders to unlock vested tokens more rapidly by distributing them across multiple wallets. Instead of rectifying the vulnerability, the team opted to blacklist wallets they believed were exploiting it, leading to unintended consequences for innocent users, as tracking all affected coins proved unfeasible. NN contended that the team's decision to blacklist wallets was made internally, and despite being part of the marketing team, they had no visibility into the specifics of the forked list.
NN's wallet was among those affected by the hard fork, despite acquiring tokens from six distinct validators. Allegations emerged that multiple victims experienced similar treatment and were subsequently removed from the Discord group. Speculation regarding the identity of 0L Network's pseudonymous lead developer, 0D, arose, with some suggesting it may be Lucas Geiger, who has faced prior charges of fraud by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Geiger, identified as a co-founder of Wireline, was previously fined $650,000 by the SEC for conducting an unregistered securities offering and alleged fraud involving the company's subsidiary.
