SatoshiVM token dips as much as 38% amid Ape Terminal controversy on X

The newly launched SatoshiVM (SAVM) token plunged as much as 38% amid a war of words between one of its advisers and fundraising platform Ape Terminal over a seemingly controversial token launch last week.

The heated argument stems from a launchpad event for SatoshiVM’s new token SAVM, which began trading on Jan. 19. Ape Terminal is a decentralized exchange (DEX) fundraising platform or “launchpad” for cryptocurrency projects looking to release a new token via an Initial DEX Offering.

SatoshiVM is a contributor-based Bitcoin layer 2 solution powered by zero-knowledge rollup technology.

“MacnBTC,” who claims to be one of SatoshiVM’s advisers, has accused the platform of having “scammed” the recent SatoshiVM IDO by giving all 210,000 SAVM token allocations to its Ape Terminal's team members instead of picking from a pool of entrants.

A person I considered a friend and ate dinner with a week ago has lied to my face, betrayed and scammed me, several IDOs and the crypto community. @theapeterminal has scammed all of the IDO launches on their platform

200,000 wallets applied to win the IDOs and 10 winners got…

— Mac (@MacnBTC) January 24, 2024

Ape Terminal has vigorously denied the claims, instead arguing it was MacnBTC that “sniped” and profited from the token sales.

In a Jan. 24 post on X, MacnBTC initially claimed that of the 200,000 wallets that applied for the SatoshiVM IDO, only ten winners were chosen, but all of them were on the Ape Terminal team. He later reposted an analysis from “bx1,” who claims that five of the ten wallets have similar selling patterns and timings.

“On top of that they took a 25% fee that they also kept,” MacnBTC claimed. “They returned all of the $SAVM tokens to the @satoshivm team but made millions selling the winner wallets.”

However, Ape Terminal hit back, claiming it never sold fees made from SAVM and instead argued that MacnBTC was the one who harvested “millions in profits.”

“Mac owns huge amounts of unlocked SAVM, sniped liquidity, and gave tokens to his friends,” the Ape Terminal team claimed.

“After profiting $10M+ in a day from $SAVM sales, Mac needs a scape goat and chose us.”

FUD, MacnBTC, and SAVM —

SAVM is a project founded by a KOL named MacnBTC.

SAVM is a bittersweet event for Ape Terminal. While we are happy it offered a good opportunity for our community, it, unfortunately, enabled a KOL to harvest his own community for millions in profits.…

— Ape Terminal (@theapeterminal) January 24, 2024

However, MacnBTC refuted the statements, claiming that “everything is verifiable on chain” and that they will soon publish the findings. He also claims he’s been threatened with a defamation lawsuit over his recent posts.

Ape Terminal meanwhile has cited an analysis of the SAVM launch by “rug.ai” on Jan. 22 in a shared Google document, which claims the SatoshiVM team netted nearly $4.7 million.

In addition, the “snipers” — which Ape Terminal claims to be MacnBTC’s “buddies” — walked away with $15.2 million, according to rug.ai.

The $SAVM Launch was the biggest launch of 2024. We analysed 13.8k holders to calculate the PnL of:

Team +$4.71m
Influencers +$4.83m
Snipers +$15.2m

Below we break down $SAVM its biggest winners pic.twitter.com/q4IFl3FvQG

— rug.ai (@rug_ai) January 22, 2024

Rug.ai, which provides investors with an AI-based token safety analysis, scored SAVM’s launch a 46/100.

It noted that the SAVM contract still has an owner, is minitable, that liquidity remains unlocked and that the two largest holders own 31% of the supply. “These features are worth noting and could potentially be dangerous,” rug.ai concluded.

A wallet related to the @SatoshiVM team is selling $SAVM !

Wallet"0xfdac" received 420K $SAVM ($4.7M) from the @SatoshiVM team wallet.

Then transferred 189,700 $SAVM ($2.12M) to 24 new wallets and has sold 124,739 $SAVM for 504 $ETH ($1.24M) currently. https://t.co/byXve425jY pic.twitter.com/UgxgXGXvrl

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) January 22, 2024

In a Jan. 25 X post, SatoshiVM said  there is a lot of misinformation being spread” about the firm and the token launch of SAVM, and that they plan on open-sourcing its research paper tomorrow as part of a transparency measure.

Cointelegraph contacted Ape Terminal and SatoshiVM for additional comments but did not receive an immediate response.

The SAVM token plummeted as much as 38% to $6.28 in a short three-hour window following MacnBTC’s initial X post at 10:04 pm UTC on Jan. 24, according to CoinGecko. However, it has since rebounded to $7 at the time of publication.