Paraspace NFT protocol ‘usurper’ resigns after failing to topple CEO
Update (19.05.2023 14:25 UTC): This article has been corrected to reflect that Thomas Schmidt and Jay Yao are (or were) consultants to ParaSpace NFT. An earlier publication of this article incorrectly named the two individuals as co-founders. Cointelegraph apologizes for this error.
The Paraspace NFT protocol saga regarding the whereabouts of the protocol’s funds took a new turn on May 19 when the project’s consultant Jay Yao resigned from his position with the company. Last week, the NFT protocol made headlines over the missing funds and a flurry of accusations from CEOs and CEOs against each other. In a statement to Cointelegraph, a spokesperson for ParaSpace wrote:
“Yubo has never embezzled. The whole issue is a setup. Jay & Thomas are neither shareholders nor co-founders of ParaSpace. Their action has no connection with ParaSpace.”
The spokesperson also claimed that “Jay & Thomas are using illegal multi-dog and Twitter accounts to threaten Yubo while working together to take over ParaSpace.” On the same day, blockchain analytics firm Secure3 published a report saying “all funds have been returned” and “we saw no evidence of embezzlement.”
The decision by Yao to leave the firm came a week after the Parapace team clashed with CEO Yubo Ruan over the missing funds. Ruan at the time claimed he was innocent and was framed by the likes of Yao to resign as CEO. Ruan also alleged that Yao and another Paraspace consultant Thomas Schmidt illegally accessed the protocol’s multisig accounts and social media platforms.
Yao took to Twitter to announce his departure from the firm a week later and apologized to the community for allowing internal matters to affect users. He added that the whole saga was never “intended to be a public matter and it should have been resolved internally.”
The entire Paraspace saga revolves around the mismanagement of 2,909 Ether (ETH) estimated to be worth $5.4 million. It all started with a price slip attack on the NFT protocol on March 18. The attack was immediately caught by crypto security firm BlockSec. To prevent hostile actors from accessing the money, the security firm removed 2,909 ETH from the protocol and then returned the assets to ParaSpace.
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The Paraspace team claimed that of the 2,909 ETH, only 50% was returned to the protocol’s treasury. The team accused Ruan of mismanaging funds as he had exclusive access to the muti-sig wallet. The team consisting of Schimidit and Yao demanded that Ruan be forcibly removed from the position of CEO. However, Yao resigned from his position along with his team.
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