OxSifu has raised $3M for his new venture seven weeks after his dramatic exit from Wonderland.
0xSifu is back, and he’s got a brand new bag.
There’s been no shortage of drama around this enigmatic figure in DeFi. OxSifu, you’ll recall, is the pseudonymous Wonderland co-founder who was ousted from his position as treasury manager at the end of January after he was doxxed as Michael Patryn, a co-founder of defunct Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX. That doomed enterprise folded in 2018 with hundreds of millions in investor losses.
As the Wonderland episode fades, OxSifu is now applying his treasury management skills to a new venture, Sifu’s Vision, which is an investment fund built around the SIFU token that he launched a month ago. About 1M tokens are available for sale at $100 apiece, implying a $100M raise if fully subscribed.
The project’s website is short on details, to say the least.
The sifu.vision website.
The Defiant spoke with 0xSifu, and here’s our exclusive interview:
The Defiant: What is Sifu’s Vision?
0xSifu: Passive growth without friction, mirroring the performance of my personal portfolio.
The Defiant: Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. How do you think the DeFi community will respond to this launch in light of the revelations about your past?
0xSifu: Today was my first day waking up with nobody to reply to on Twitter. No attacks. All recent attacks have received a ton of support on my side. I feel like CT [Crypto Twitter] is finally getting annoyed with the baseless FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt).
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The Defiant
After crying scam and failing to provide a single txid (proof of a blockchain transaction) of evidence during this seven-week period, it’s pretty transparent to me that these “good Samaritan narcs” cost investors money for their own benefit.
The Defiant: There have been allegations that you stole assets from Wonderland and that it was all an elaborate scam. Would you care to respond?
0xSifu: People claim that I stole hundreds of millions or billions from Wonderland, despite all on-chain activity and statements from the team that everything was returned. There was around $500M of Wonderland funds in my EOA when I was doxxed to the public. And even more, before I was doxxed to Dani. I always returned it, and all this is verifiable on-chain. I don’t know any anons who would do this.
Note: Sifu declined to comment on his time at QuadrigaCX, and instead referred us to a Wonderland forum post that he said reflects his version of past events. He maintains that any wrongdoing occurred after his departure from the company, as noted in this report from the Ontario Securities Commission.
The Defiant: Speaking of Wonderland, a major complaint from investors is that the so-called “backing price” was not defended with buybacks as promised. What went wrong there?
‘Rage Quit’ Window
0xSifu: We spent nine figures on buybacks. They continued until the day I was voted out. Most were done manually from my EOA, and the rest were through bots such as Sushi limit orders. All verifiable on-chain.
The Defiant: Wonderland’s “rage quit” window opened yesterday. Was it a tactical move to launch Sifu’s Vision around the same time?
0xSifu: It was intentionally delayed so as not to interfere with the Wonderland redemption process. I did not want to vampire attack Wonderland with my own swap portal. I have been pulling and investing the funds received since the pre-sale started last month. We are up 10%.
The Defiant: Are there any safeguards in place to secure investor funds? A multi-sig, for example?
0xSifu: There will be a setup so that funds are safe if anything happens to me. However, funds are not secured by any arbitrary smart contract. I am free to quickly and discreetly invest in what I think is best. The app’s performance should mirror that of my own portfolio. We earn together.
I’ll also be sharing trade ideas in the holders’ channel in Discord.
The Defiant: The website mentions redemptions. How will that work?
0xSifu: Users will be able to swap their $SIFU tokens for the backing value of ETH without vote delays or penalties on a quarterly basis.
The Defiant: Finally, is Sifu’s Vision simply a do-over of Wonderland without the so-called ‘rebase Ponzi’ aspect?
0xSifu: Sent an emoji of a dancing hamster.
$3M Raised
The SIFU token has 351 holders apart from Sifu and the two Uniswap liquidity pools. They collectively hold approximately 29,840 tokens worth $3.5M at the current price of $118.
Sifu has a prolific track record as a DeFi investor and trader, but will his checkered past prove to be a deal-breaker for investors?
We asked Matt Henderson, one of the largest holders of SIFU tokens and author of the aforementioned proposal.
“Over a period of 18 months, I observed Sifu grow his personal capital from $3M to $70M. As an investor, I’m excited to hold the SIFU token, both in terms of its potential, and what it reflects; that DeFi is truly a free market, where everyone is free to participate, and be judged on merit, without prejudice,” Henderson said.
The Defiant reached out to zachxbt, the blockchain sleuth who unmasked Sifu, for comment regarding this new venture. We didn’t receive a response by the time of publication.
Disclosure: The author aped into some SIFU tokens. Not a recommendation or endorsem*nt.
