The Big Chainlink Short Gets a ‘Lawsuit’ Twist as LINK Leaves Top 10 in Silence

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Sead Fadilpašić

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Sead Fadilpašić

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Sead specializes in writing factual and informative articles to help the public navigate the ever-changing world of crypto. He has extensive experience in the blockchain industry, where he has served...

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June 26, 2023

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Chainlink, the operator of the LINK token, still remains silent in public about a controversial campaign run by Zeus Capital that has seemingly intensified its efforts, calling people to join a “class-action lawsuit” against the project. Meanwhile, LINK has been dropping since the campaign started in mid-July as Zeus claims they’re shorting the token. (Updated on July 29: updates in bold.)

The Cryptoverse has gotten a sequel to the story about the recent accusations against one of the year’s best-performing major altcoins – allegedly in the form of a lawsuit.

Meanwhile, the secretive company declined to disclose its investors, team members, and investments.

Also, in an email to Cryptonews.com, signed by Linda Stone, Partner at Zeus Capital, the company said that they work with “a top 20 law firm in the world” and “the name of the firm will become public once the lawsuits are filed.”

According to the email, more than 40 investors have come forward and shared their cases.

As a reminder, a report by Zeus Capital – accused by some to be impersonating a London-based brokerage – claimed that LINK operators use “classic pump and dump techniques such as trading on inside information” and they also warned that a “crash is imminent,” and that LINK will be classified as a security, leaving the company and the investors at risk of “anything from dealing in unregistered securities to court orders for the disgorgement of proceeds.” Their Twitter account – focused on Chainlink since publishing the report – also tends to emphasize that this is a “Russian pump-and-dump.” And while some of their claims were debunked by the crypto community (such as “Chainlink is trying to avoid а commitment of its mainnet launch date at any cost”) the project itself has not commented on these accusations and has not responded to multiple requests for comment sent by Cryptonews.com.

In an earlier email to Cryptonews.com, also signed by Linda Stone, the company claimed that “Chainlink caught our attention as their public announcements intensified and LINK price – skyrocketed.”

No contact with Chainlink was made allegedly. The report is based on publicly available information and discussions with their current and prospective clients, Stone said.

As for the email addresses to which the company sent the Chainlink report, Stone claimed they were purchased from a data provider, and “provided by one of your industry partners/consultants that we are unable to disclose at this point.”

Stone stated that the company was founded “around November 2019,” and that their team “gathers investment professionals with extensive capital markets expertise,” however, “due to contractual obligations, we cannot disclose the former commits of the members.”

Also, for “security reasons,” the team, investors, founders, executives, and others, prefer to stay anonymous for the time being. “Our personnel has received numerous personal threat as a result of their previous investigations,” according to the email.

The company said that they can’t disclose the full list of their investments, “as part of the fiduciary duty to our investors and partners.”

“We do hold a short position in LINK. Generally, we have a short/long mandate which utilizes both quantitative strategies and fundamental/activist investments,” the email said.

Meanwhile, the price of LINK has dropped more than 20% since July 15, when the report came out. Now (14:13 UTC) trading at USD 6.93, it dropped 7% in 24 hours and 11% in a week. LINK has also left the list of the top 10 coins by market capitalization and is now ranked 12th.

LINK price chart: