OX.FUN Addresses Month-Long Controversy With JefeDAO

Since the beginning of this month, there has been a huge misunderstanding between the crypto exchange OX.FUN and the non-fungible token (NFT) artist collective JefeDAO, with accusations of market manipulation and insolvency making headlines.

OX.FUN has addressed the issue in what the team tagged as the final statement regarding the situation. As expected, OX Coin (OX), the native token of the exchange, has rallied significantly.

According to data from CoinMarketCap, OX is up 80% daily, surging from $0.0047 to $0.0098. At the time of writing, the crypto asset had corrected slightly and fallen to $0.0084.

The Controversy Between OX.FUN And JefeDAO

Per OX.FUN’s tweet, the crypto exchange flagged JefeDAO’s account on February 4 after a member of the collective deposited $1 million in USD Coin (USDC) and engaged in market manipulation of the Solana-based memecoin Stool Prisondente (JAILSTOOL). The exchange said the collective’s action made a profit of more than $120,000 in OX within five minutes.

After flagging the account, the OX.FUN team froze the funds, making sure JefeDAO could not make any withdrawals if they tried to. Eventually, OX.FUN’s founder, Nicolas Bayle, insisted that the account be unlocked and the initial deposit returned. However, an internal conflict caused a delay in implementing the instructions. Thus, the account was unlocked briefly but locked again for investigation.

On February 21, JefeDAO took to X to complain about the situation. They claimed that they executed no trades with the account after depositing the $1 million USDC. OX.FUN called this claim “a blatant lie to slander the platform.” The exchange said JefeDAO members threatened Bayle’s family and began a fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) campaign, spreading rumors about the platform being insolvent.

An FUD Campaign Against OX.FUN

JefeDAO revealed that their efforts to resolve the issue with the exchange were futile. They noted that the OX.FUN team kept insisting that the collective violated the platform’s terms of service (ToS) but failed to specify which rules were affected.

While JefeDAO claimed that OX.FUN was insolvent, complaints from other users fueled the rumors. Several OX.FUN users disclosed that the platform had frozen their assets for ToS violations. 

Before the $1 million USDC was released, JefeDAO revealed that Bayle asked for five months of free promotion for OX.FUN as part of a deal for releasing the funds. However, the collective’s members did not give in to the demand.

Although the funds have been released, OX.FUN says the defamation and slander against its platform have yet to stop. The team stated that it has been experiencing malicious attacks to the point of a user launching and rugging a shitcoin.

Regardless, the exchange insists it is fully solvent and operational. The team has also apologized for handling the situation poorly.

“This was a tough lesson to learn as a team, but an important one: Trust is built on clarity and honesty. We’re making changes, not just in how we communicate, but in how we act,” OX.FUN stated.

Meanwhile, it has come to light that OX.FUN is backed by Su Zhu and Kyle Davies, the founders of the defunct crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC). This has further fueled the community’s distrust of the platform, as Zhu and Davies are known for being fraudsters.

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