SatoshiVM Marred by Controversy Days After SAVM Issuance

SatoshiVM’s SAVM is facing controversy in crypto circles due to the apparent presence of a handful of wallets controlling a sizeable share of the initial token supply – millions of dollars worth of which were dumped on market participants shortly after going live.

SatoshiVM has seemingly included most of the trendy buzzwords in defining its protocol. It claims to be a Bitcoin layer 2 protocol powered by zero-knowledge rollup technology – a string of terms that, together, can be thought of as a network that settles transactions on Bitcoin without having to share extra data with network validators.

SAVM was one of the most-hyped token issuances in recent months. It jumped several thousand percent to a market capitalization of as high as $90 million a few hours after issuance, DEXTools data shows.

But the controversy began shortly after it went live on Jan.19. Data cited by on-chain analysis tool @bubblemaps shows 15% of the token’s supply was sent to a handful of wallets supposedly owned by market influencers who “immediately sold upon receiving the tokens.”

The wallet 0xe77fb sent $SAVM to 250 influencers.

Over 1.2 million tokens were received, currently valued at $12 million

50% have already been dumped on Uniswap! pic.twitter.com/bNTyjMj9Hs

— Bubblemaps (@bubblemaps) January 19, 2024

Some prominent investors who participated in SatoshiVM’s private sale confirmed they took profits from their positions – but faced backlash as market observers questioned the motive of selling allocations in the first few hours after issuance.

If you're a VC, angel investor, partner, influwhatnot and get pre-market allocations, you should have a lockup period of at least 6 months if not more.

Anything else is just dumping on your followers at the very first opportunity, no matter how much you sell.

— Steeludder (@steeludder) January 19, 2024

Analysis service @Lookonchain reported a wallet that received SAVM tokens from the publicly-known SatoshiVM team wallet received upward of $4 million worth of tokens after launch, selling $1.2 million worth in the first 48 hours after issuance.

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

The SatoshiVM has, so far, thwarted all accusations and is holding a community ask-me-anything session on Thursday to directly answer queries. The team did not immediately respond to an X message sent by CoinDesk in Asian morning hours on Thursday.

Meanwhile, SAVM tokens have shown resilience amid the ongoing controversy. Prices have ranged in the $7 and $14 bands since Jan.19 and remain a hot favorite among retail traders on X.