CFO of DeFi Project Wonderland Outed as Co-Founder of QuadrigaCX: Report

By Scott Chipolina and Liam J. Kelly

0xSifu, a co-founder and CFO of an Avalanche-based fork of OlympusDAO called Wonderland, has been outed as a co-founder of the notorious Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX. The exchange was labeled a “ponzi scheme” by the Ontario Securities Commission in 2020.

Initial reports from Twitter user zachxbt indicate that 0xSifu’s real name is Michael Patryn. 

A report from The Globe and Mail in 2019 confirmed that prior to being called Michael Patryn, this individual was previously called Omar Dahini, then Omar Patryn, following two name changes in 2003 and 2008 respectively.  

Omar Dahini (aka Omar Patryn, aka Michael Patryn, aka 0xSifu) is also the same individual who co-founded QuadrigaCX in 2013 with Gerald Cotten. 

Elsewhere, Taylor Monahan, founder, and CEO of MyCrypto, also demonstrated the connection between 0xSifu and Patryn using on-chain data pulled from Etherscan. 

Daniele Sestagalli, a developer who co-founded Wonderland, was also reportedly aware of 0xSifu’s past history with QuadrigaCX. 

Shortly after these reports began circulating, Sestagalli took to Twitter to explain that he “was aware of this and decided that the past of an individual doesn’t determine their future. I choose to value the time we spent together without knowing his past more than anything.”

The revelation has led to many other projects within the so-called Frog Nation to come forward and clarify their relationship with 0xSifu, including Popsicle Finance and Abracadabra Money.  

Frog Nation refers to the broader community of users within the various DeFi projects built and sustained by Sestagelli and other adjacent developers. 0xSifu’s Twitter bio reads “CFO of [Frog] Nation,” and Sestagelli’s reads “CSO of the [Frog] Nation.” 

What was QuadrigaCX? 

In June 2020, a report released by the Ontario Securities Commission corroborated many of the concerns expressed about QuadrigaCX. 

The report labeled the exchange—which was the largest crypto exchange in Canada until Cotten’s suspected death revealed a financial hole worth $215 million—a “ponzi scheme.” What’s more, Cotten was found to have faked about $115 million worth of trading volume on the exchange. 

“The downfall of crypto-asset trading platform QuadrigaCX resulted from a fraud committed by Quadriga’s co-founder and CEO Gerald Cotten,” the report said. 

“In its final months, Quadriga had almost no assets left and was operating like a revolving door—new client deposits were immediately re-routed to fund other clients’ withdrawals.” 

The Ontario regulator stressed that, “The misconduct uncovered in relation to Quadriga is limited to Quadriga, and should not be understood as applying to the crypto asset platform industry as a whole.” 

The connection between the fast-growing Wonderland project and one of crypto’s most well-known frauds has already sent shockwaves throughout the industry.

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