YouTuber ‘Ice Poseidon’ aka Paul Denino Admits to $500,000 CxCoin Rugpull
YouTube and Twitch personality ‘Ice Poseidon’ has admitted to rug pulling his investors and claims he could return all of the money, but has instead decided to look out for himself.
The explosive admission came this Monday in a conversation with crypto web sleuth and fellow YouTube content creator, Coffeezilla, who called the fellow content creator after noticing that $291,246 worth of BNB had been removed from the CXCoin liquidity pool.
According to Coffeezilla, almost $250,000 worth of BNB previously went missing from CXCoin’s marketing wallet meaning the total amount of misappropriated funds lies north of $500,000.
During the conversation, Coffeezilla pointed out to Denino that he could easily return the funds to investors if he chose to, a point that Denino wholeheartedly agreed with.
“I could give the money back, it is within my power, but I’m going to look out for myself and not do that,” Denino said.
The influencer went on to admit that he only did around two weeks’ work on the project but insists that he initially started out with good intentions, and believes that final responsibility for the rug pull rests with slow-witted investors who weren’t savvy enough to get their money out sooner.
Coffeezilla v Ice Poseidon key moments
Coffeezilla: It looks like the coin got rugged, would you know anything about that?
Denino: I mean, yeah, well not rugged but uh…
Coffeezilla: Well someone pulled all the liquidity out. That’s a rug, right?
Denino: That would be a rug, yes, but…. there is still liquidity in there.
Coffeezilla: $40,000 got left and $300,000 got ripped out.
……..
Coffeezilla: You want to keep the money that’s not yours that you took from the project even though you failed to deliver.
Denino: I’m not really sure what you want me to say, but… yeah.
Coffeezilla: I’m trying to get you to return the money because it is 100% still available and you could do that.
Denino: If you want the answer, yes, I could give the money back, it is within my power, but I’m going to look out for myself and not do that.
Ice Poseidon ‘misinterpreted himself’
Following the release of the Coffeezilla YouTube video, CxCoin team members have sought to clarify their position, claiming that the car crash interview was wrong on a number of key points.
In the CxCoin community Telegram group, team member Jahun explained that the entire incident was a big misunderstanding. According to Jahun, who absolutely denied any wrongdoing, Denino (Ice Poseidon) had simply confused everyone when he ‘misinterpreted himself’ during the course of his discussion with Coffeezilla.
“All in all I believe there was a big misunderstanding and Ice misinterpreted himself which is making him look really bad right now,” said Jahun.
“As for Cxcoin itself, it did not turn out to be a huge success but we did build the main product and also guarantee all holders that they can exit their position if they wish to since we do have sufficient LP,” he further claimed.
The CxCoin lackey also offered his own explanation for the sudden removal of $300,000 — equivalent to 90% of the liquidity pool — without prior notice.
“Taking out the LP also would protect the value USD-wise which can be invested into the project as the overall market sentiment of crypto is on a downfall,” he said.
This line of argument was met with skepticism from some quarters of the community, many of whom did not appear to accept Jahun’s contradictory clarifications. A few went on to suggest that should law enforcement ever take an interest in the case, successfully prosecuting Denino and the CxCoin team would take the absolute minimum of work from law enforcement agencies.
As one put it, “nailing an influencer who was dumb enough to admit to financial crimes in an interview would be pretty minimal work for a good payoff I feel,” while another user sarcastically prepared a mock defense for Denino, “Your honor. I only embezzled 90% of the funds, so technically I didn’t steal.”
A not so proud tradition
While some excuses for the CxCoin rug pull may seem bizarre, the incident follows in a dubious and well-worn tradition of crypto rug pulls that profer ridiculous excuses for their behavior once the funds have been drained.
In November of last year, Squid Game stole $11.9 million of investors’ money in a high-profile rug pull, which the so-called development team blamed on depression.
“Squid Game Dev does not want to continue running the project as we are depressed from the scammers and is overwhelmed [sic] with stress,” they said right before stealing all of their investors’ money, presumably in an attempt to cheer themselves up.
While the majority of observers might more naturally lend their sympathy to the victims of rug pull scams, it appears the perpetrators of these crimes are only capable of holding sympathy for themselves.
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