Decentralized crypto aggregator Jupiter has found itself in the middle of controversy after announcing a collaboration with an exposed influencer.
Solana decentralized exchange aggregator Jupiter has sparked outrage in the crypto community following its collaboration announcement with Irene Zhao, a Singaporean influencer implicated in multiple crypto-related dubious activities.
In an X announcement on July 22, Jupiter’s anonymous founder, known as @weremeow, revealed the collaboration aimed at improving the “meme coin meta” and providing “degens an on-chain mom to care for them when they are sad.” The founder stated the platform aims to address issues like “fake wide distribution, sniping,” and “lying influencers.”
“If these works, ideally it can serve as a model for other memecoins in contrast to the sniping, opaque control, instadumping prone, paranoid launch meta we see today,” said @weremeow.
The announcement was met with immediate backlash, as the crypto community accused Jupiter of endorsing shady activities by associating with Zhao.
Blockchain sleuth ZachXBT highlighted the irony, noting Zhao’s past opaque dealings with her project So-Col. He alleged Zhao previously engaged in secret deals with DWF, which were undisclosed to early investors.
"Hilarious seeing Irene Zhao involved with a “solution” for opaque allocations when she literally did exactly this with her project SOCOL," ZachXBT remarked.
In February 2023, market maker DWF Labs invested $1.5 million in Zhao’s So-Col by acquiring native SIMP tokens. Zhao reportedly pledged to a one-year vesting period for the tokens ending in February 2024. However, blockchain data revealed DWF received over 3 million SIMP tokens in March, transferring approximately 2.6 million SIMP to the KuCoin crypto exchange.
Zhao gained popularity in early 2022 by selling her photos as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), amassing over $5 million. She later launched an NFT collection called IreneDAO, aimed at “disrupting the creator economy.” Initially, the collection saw a price floor surge to 1.49 ETH but has since plummeted to 0.05 ETH, representing an 87% decline from its all-time highs, according to CoinGecko data.
