After the discovery, the meme coin’s market cap surged to $23 million before retracing. Meanwhile, Dogwifhat (WIF) organizers reassured its supporters that their long-awaited Sphere advertisement is still in progress, and promised refunds if it fails. A US court also recently delayed its ruling on whether Bitfinex should receive forfeited crypto linked to the 2016 hack. Prosecutors were given until Feb. 4 to clarify their position.
Lawsuit Against Pump.fun Takes Unexpected Turn
A meme coin that was supposedly launched by a law firm as part of a class-action lawsuit against Solana-based meme coin creator Pump.fun recently turned quite a few heads in the crypto community. The token is called Dog Shit Going NoWhere (DOGSHIT2), and it recently surged to a market capitalization of $23 million before retracing.
Pump.fun was recently hit with a proposed class-action lawsuit, with some investors alleging that every token it facilitated was an unregistered security from which it generated close to $500 million in fees. The lawsuit was filed by US law firms Burwick Law and Wolf Popper on behalf of affected investors.
However, crypto community members quickly noticed that an address used in the court documents, specifically Exhibit C, matches the wallet address behind DOGSHIT2. This led many to speculate that the law firms themselves may be behind the token.
The exhibit indicates that the token was launched on Oct. 31 last year, and its listing includes a warning stating, ”Don’t buy this coin.” Despite this, data from GeckoTerminal shows that the meme coin’s value spiked dramatically after the lawsuit was filed and people connected it to the legal proceedings. At its peak on Jan. 31, DOGSHIT2 reached a $23 million market cap before dropping back to approximately $2.4 million. The token’s price also hit an all-time high of $0.003968 on Feb. 2. At press time, DOGSHIT2 was trading hands at $0.003777 after its price climbed 18+% over the past 24 hours.
DOGSHIT2 price action since launch (Source: CoinMarketCap)
This isn’t the first time Burwick Law has been involved in meme coin-related legal action. In fact, the firm previously looked for investors who lost money on Haliey Welch’s Hawk Tuah meme coin last December.
The controversy surrounding DOGSHIT2 is happening at a time of a renewed frenzy in the meme coin market. Recently, Elon Musk’s father hinted at launching his own meme coin called Musk It (MUSKIT). Pump.fun has also seen a surge in activity, with the platform reaching a record high of $3.3 billion in weekly trading volume. This increase in volume was due to the launch of meme coins linked to the Trump family.
Interest in meme coins has been on the rise over the past year. A CoinGecko study revealed that from Jan. 1 to Dec. 21 last year, meme coins and related categories accounted for almost 31% of investor interest. The trend was amplified by US President Donald Trump’s involvement in the meme coin space.
WIF Organizers Promise Refunds if Sphere Ad Fails
The official account of Dogwifhat (WIF), a Solana-based meme coin, recently addressed some of the concerns surrounding the “Sphere Wif Hat” initiative, which was a crowdfunding campaign that was launched almost a year ago with the goal of displaying the token’s logo on the Las Vegas Sphere. Despite raising $700,000 in days of its launch on March 10, the project has not delivered on its promise at all. Naturally, this caused a lot of concern in the community.
In a post on Jan. 31, Dogwifhat reassured its supporters that the organizers of the campaign have been in ongoing negotiations with various parties to facilitate the Sphere advertisement. According to the team, since Dogwifhat is not a corporate entity, the organizers have partnered with an established brand to execute the plan. A statement also revealed that a timeline has now been agreed upon by the affiliated parties. However, should the plan not come to fruition, the contract will be voided, and all donors will receive refunds.
The project’s organizers stated that there has been no plans to mislead anyone regarding the campaign. The uncertainty surrounding the initiative coincided with big price fluctuations for WIF. Three weeks after the crowdfunding campaign launched, the token hit an all-time high of $4.85. However, it has since dropped by more than 80%.
WIF’s all-time price action (Source: CoinMarketCap)
In July of 2024, Mihir, one of the five organizers listed on the official campaign website, told reporters that he was ”90% confident” the initiative will proceed as planned. He also revealed that representatives from the Sphere introduced new crypto-specific terms in response to the campaign, and internal meetings were held to develop policies to tackle these terms.
Court Delays Ruling on Bitfinex Hack Crypto Return
A federal court has yet to rule on a motion from the US government requesting that crypto that was forfeited from a criminal case linked to the 2016 Bitfinex hack be returned to the exchange. In a filing on Jan. 28 in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly asked prosecutors to clarify certain issues related to their request to return the funds as part of proceedings against two convicted money launderers.
The US government seized 94,643 Bitcoin, along with smaller amounts of Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Satoshi Vision, and Bitcoin Gold, from Ilya Lichtenstein and his wife, Heather Morgan, who were involved in laundering the stolen funds. Lichtenstein also admitted to being responsible for the original hack.
According to the judge, returning the funds to Bitfinex could effectively reduce the forfeiture order, something that other courts have considered improper. Prosecutors were given until Feb. 4 to explain their position before the court makes a decision.
The 2016 Bitfinex hack was one of the largest crypto thefts at the time as hackers stole approximately 119,754 BTC from the exchange. US authorities arrested Lichtenstein and Morgan in 2022 in connection with laundering the stolen funds and subsequently seized the cryptocurrency.
Ilya Lichtenstein and his wife Heather Morgan
The couple pleaded guilty in 2023 and were sentenced to prison. Lichtenstein received five years and Morgan 18 months. While Lichtenstein has been in US custody since 2022, Morgan was initially scheduled to report to prison on Jan. 24. After her sentencing in November of 2024, Morgan resumed posting on social media, promoting her creative projects, and even launching a Cameo channel branding herself as “crypto’s favorite felon.”
Although many victims were affected by the Bitfinex hack, an October 2024 court filing suggested that the exchange may be the only entity eligible for reimbursement. The US government previously asked victims to submit impact statements, which may factor into the final decision on the forfeited funds.
This article was originally Posted on Coinpaper.com
