FTX CEO Takes Over SushiSwap Following Master Chef’s $10M+ Cash Out

FTX derivatives exchange CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) has taken over SushiSwap following the sudden cash-out by project founder “Chef Nomi.”

Chef Nomi, the pseudonymous founder of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol SushiSwap, created a wave of controversy on September 5 after cashing out his entire holding worth over $10 million in ETH. The transaction followed on the heels of criticism from the community after it was revealed that Chef Nomi held nearly half of the coins in the protocol.

SUSHI, which started as a fork of Uniswap, plummeted in the aftermath of the founder’s withdrawal, dropping from $9.50 to $1.13 and generating outrage across the landscape of decentralized exchanges.

On September 6, FTX’s CEO published a chain of tweets explaining he had taken over SushiSwap in an attempt to salvage the protocol. SBF praised sushi as a promising automated market maker (AMM) product while blasting the former founder for hurting the DeFi community.

16) TL;DR:

a) Nomi sucks and hurt the community

b) Sushi shows promise as a dynamic AMM built by the community

c) If Nomi doesn’t step down, it’s over for Sushi.

d) If Sushi adds a division on Serum, we’ll give 5mm SUSHI to farmers

e) Either way, AMMs coming to Serum

— SBF (@SBF_Alameda) September 6, 2020

Despite withdrawing more than 20,000 ETH and 2.5 million SUSHI from the project’s development fund, Chef Nomi insisted the move was not an exit scam. Instead, he compared his situation to that of Litecoin’s founder Charlie Lee, who sold his entire LTC holdings during a price peak in late 2017.

People asked if I exited scam. I did not. I am still here. I will continue to participate in the discussion. I will help with the technical part. I will help ensure we have a successful migration.@SatoshiLite did that and Litecoin had no problem surviving.

— Chef Nomi #SushiSwap (@NomiChef) September 5, 2020