Manta Network was accused by the community of insider trading and money laundering

Manta Network, a modular L2 solution for ZK applications, was launched on Binance Launchpool as the 44th project on January 16, 2024. However, the project has faced accusations of token dumping and money laundering by the Korean cryptocurrency community, who claim that Manta Korea BD Sumeley sold 2 million MANTA tokens within 5 minutes of listing on the exchange. Bithumb, a major Korean exchange, and transferred the proceeds to his personal wallet.

According to the whistleblowers, Sumeley transferred 2 million MANTA tokens from the Manta distributed wallet to his personal wallet on January 18, 2024, the same day MANTA was listed on Bithumb. This person then deposited the tokens into Bithumb's deposit wallet, accounting for more than 75% of the total MANTA circulating volume on Bithumb.

Within 5 minutes of listing, Bithumb's MANTA price skyrocketed to 230 USD, while the price on other exchanges was around 2 USD. Sumeley allegedly dumped all 2 million MANTA tokens at 50 to 100 times the market price, making a profit of over 5 million USD. He then converted the funds to Ethereum and transferred 2,094.7 ETH to his personal wallet.

The Korean community questioned the legality of Sumeley's actions and suspected that he was involved in money laundering or insider trading. They also criticized Bithumb for allowing such large deposits and price manipulation without any intervention or explanation. South Korea has strict regulations on cryptocurrency trading and requires real name verification and anti-money laundering compliance for cryptocurrency service providers.

The Financial Services Commission (FSC) and the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) are the main regulators of the cryptocurrency sector in South Korea and have the authority to impose sanctions or penalties on any violation. If the allegations against Sumeley and Manta are proven true, they could face legal consequences and damage the reputation of the project and the exchange. As of press time, neither Sumeley nor Manta have responded to the accusations. While successfully listing the token on various exchanges, Manta was hit by a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. According to Kenny Li, co-founder of P0xeidon Labs – the team of cryptographic developers behind Manta Network – blockchain nodes were subjected to more than 135 million remote procedure call (RPC) requests on January 18. Although “the blockchain is operating securely” and “the funds are safe,” Li emphasized that the attack was extremely drastic and well-timed. Li further warned that there is currently a significant limitation in communication between applications and blockchain.

However, Manta Network has taken positive steps to overcome this situation. They have provided detailed information about the attack and are actively working with cybersecurity experts to prevent this attack from happening in the future. Also according to Kenny Li, the DDoS attack not only affected Manta Network's operations but also caused anxiety in the user and investor community. This may affect the reputation and trustworthiness of the project in the future. Manta Network has pledged to continue its efforts to ensure the safety and security of its systems, and to clearly communicate any incidents that occur to the user community. While waiting for a response from Sumeley and Manta, both the cryptocurrency community and investors are closely monitoring the developments in this case. Clarification of the allegations and further actions of Manta Network will determine the future of the project in the near future. According to the whistleblowers, Sumeley transferred 2 million MANTA tokens from the Manta distributed wallet to his personal wallet on January 18, 2024, the same day MANTA was listed on Bithumb. This person then deposited the tokens into Bithumb's deposit wallet, accounting for more than 75% of the total MANTA circulating volume on Bithumb. Within 5 minutes of listing, Bithumb's MANTA price skyrocketed to 230 USD, while the price on other exchanges was around 2 USD. Sumeley allegedly dumped all 2 million MANTA tokens at 50 to 100 times the market price, making a profit of over 5 million USD. He then converted the funds to Ethereum and transferred 2,094.7 ETH to his personal wallet. The Korean community questioned the legality of Sumeley's actions and suspected that he was involved in money laundering or insider trading. They also criticized Bithumb for allowing such large deposits and price manipulation without any intervention or explanation.

South Korea has strict regulations on cryptocurrency trading and requires real name verification and anti-money laundering compliance for cryptocurrency service providers. The Financial Services Commission (FSC) and the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) are the main regulators of the cryptocurrency sector in South Korea and have the authority to impose sanctions or penalties on any violation. If the allegations against Sumeley and Manta are proven true, they could face legal consequences and damage the reputation of the project and the exchange. As of press time, neither Sumeley nor Manta have responded to the accusations. While successfully listing the token on various exchanges, Manta was hit by a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. According to Kenny Li, co-founder of P0xeidon Labs – a group of

According to the whistleblowers, Sumeley transferred 2 million MANTA tokens from the Manta distributed wallet to his personal wallet on January 18, 2024, the same day MANTA was listed on Bithumb. This person then deposited the tokens into Bithumb's deposit wallet, accounting for more than 75% of the total MANTA circulating volume on Bithumb. Within 5 minutes of listing, Bithumb's MANTA price skyrocketed to 230 USD, while the price on other exchanges was around 2 USD. Sumeley allegedly dumped all 2 million MANTA tokens at 50 to 100 times the market price, making a profit of over 5 million USD. He then converted the funds to Ethereum and transferred 2,094.7 ETH to his personal wallet.

The Korean community questioned the legality of Sumeley's actions and suspected that he was involved in money laundering or insider trading. They also criticized Bithumb for allowing such large deposits and price manipulation without any intervention or explanation. South Korea has strict regulations on cryptocurrency trading and requires real name verification and anti-money laundering compliance for cryptocurrency service providers.

The Financial Services Commission (FSC) and the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) are the main regulators of the cryptocurrency sector in South Korea and have the authority to impose sanctions or penalties on any violation. If the allegations against Sumeley and Manta are proven true, they could face legal consequences and damage the reputation of the project and the exchange. As of press time, neither Sumeley nor Manta have responded to the accusations. While successfully listing the token on various exchanges, Manta was hit by a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack.