NFT app Rebase co-founder accused of going “rogue” in case by partner

The co-founder of nonfungible token (NFT) project Rebase is facing a lawsuit from his apparent business partner who accuses him of going “rogue” by stealing $2 million from a shared crypto wallet and removing an apparent co-founder from the firm.

An April 17 filing in a U.S. District Court in California by Krzysztof Gagacki, who says they are co-founders of Rebase, brought eight separate complaints against the firm’s other co-founder Edmond Truong.

Gagacki is demanding a jury trial for breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, defamation and trademark infringement.

Although it is unclear exactly when the professional relationship between the two soured, Gagacki alleged that Truong breached a partnership contract on October 27, 2022 by misappropriating $2 million into a separate wallet owned and controlled by Truong without his consent.

Gagacki claims to own a 50% share of the funds and says Truong refuses to give him the private keys to the digital wallet.

In the filing, he claims that Troung “driven” him out of the business by presenting himself to third parties as the “sole owner” and “decision maker” of Rebase.

Gagacki further claims that Troung states that Gagacki is no longer “employed” at the firm after things had “got a little out of hand.” A LinkedIn account owned by Gagacki does not show an employment history with Rebase.

Truong also allegedly “intentionally interfered” with several potential deals that Gagacki had worked on for the firm in addition to making several defamatory statements to the firm’s business contacts about Gagacki.

Gagacki claims that these statements have had a “catastrophic effect” on his reputation.

One of the deals involved American celebrity Bella Hadid, who was involved in the firm’s Cy-B3lla NFT project, but subsequently refused further cooperation after it was made clear to her that the two business partners were clashing with each other, the filing claimed.

Truong also reportedly seized a Twitter account linked to Hadid’s NFT collection that Gagacki claims to own the trademark rights to with his other company, IOVO AG:

“[Truong] has also managed the Twitter accounts @REBASEgg and @cybellaxyz. Specifically, [Truong] has changed the password for these accounts and is actively denying Mr. Gagacki access.”

Another allegation mentioned by Gagacki was Truong’s unauthorized attempt to issue a Rebase token on the Ethereum layer 2 scaling solution Arbirtrum.

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If a token is issued, it could have serious consequences for Rebase, the filing explained:

“If a Rebase app token is listed on any major cryptocurrency exchange, the market value of tokens, which will be minted on the Arbitrum network and offered to the public, could reach many times the Rebase app’s last round valuation of $150,000 .000.”

According to the firm’s Twitter account, Rebase is set to integrate on Arbitrum on April 21:

The firm’s $150 million valuation has come on the back of venture capital funding from Animoca Capital, Anti Fund Investment Fund, LLC, DeFiance Capital and the now bankrupt Three Arrows Capital.

Cointelegraph contacted Gagacki, Truong and Rebase, but did not immediately receive a response.

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