The crypto market is in the red zone today after crypto entrepreneurs Justin Sun and Vitalik Buterin joined the insider joke of wrapped Ethereum’s (wETH) insolvency that went viral over the weekend.
The wETH Insolvency Joke
On Sunday, November 27th, blockchain and ERC-721A developer ‘cygaar’ took to Twitter to make claims that wETH would soon be insolvent. He tweeted:
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ATTENTION: WETH is about to be insolvent.I will begrudgingly bail out anyone holding WETH at a rate of 0.5 ETH per WETH in order to save this space. You can thank me once the crisis has been adverted.— cygaar (@0xCygaar) November 26, 2022
The joke caught more attention after Ethereum bull Anthony Sassano reacted to cygaar, stating “A person I have known for more than ten years ... I don’t know anything concrete, but if I were exposed, I would be concerned.”
Sun and Buterin Join In on the Joke
Since a great portion of the crypto community was unaware of the joke, it quickly turned into FUD. Justin Sun and Vitalik Buterin, founders of Ethereum and Tron, have also joined the insolvency joke.
Joining in and citing a tweet about wETH’s “insolvency”, Sun said he had “discussed with my BFF Vitalik Buterin and together we will invest $2b into WEF to recover all the funds.”
As a humble member of the crypto industry, I personnally have discussed with my BFF @VitalikButerin and together we will invest $2b into WEF to recover all the funds. Stay #SAFU! Stay strong! https://t.co/UmjtljyRNz— H.E. Justin Sun (@justinsuntron) November 28, 2022
Buterin, replying to Sun, said wETH and WEF sound very similar. Crypto users on Twitter, who have failed to understand that the $2 billion for WEF (World Economic Forum) is part of the joke, have asked if “we’re buying WEF Coin?”
Personally I'm more surprised that no one has yet noticed how WETH and WEF sound so similar. Use WETH, eat the bugs!— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) November 28, 2022
The Crypto Market Loses Ground
After remaining relatively stable over the weekend, the crypto market has lost ground as the FUD spreads. Bitcoin and Ethereum dropped by over 3% and 4%, with Huobi Token being the biggest loser with -12% in the last 24 hours.
On the Flipside
- Cygaar has confirmed that wETH will not be unpegged and will always be redeemable 1:1 to ETH and it was a “sh*tpost” to see who was reading his content.
Why You Should Care
The FUD surrounding wETH shows how easily the crypto market reacts to news and the effect crypto influencers have on the market.
Find out more about wETH below:
Coin Healthcheck: Wrapped ETH (WETH)
Find out what Buterin said about the crash in:
Ethereum (ETH) Co-Founder Vitalik Buterin Says There Are Lessons To Learn From The FTX Collapse