Be Aware of FUD: New Rumors Spread by Twitter Guy “Otteroooo” (Sharing full conversation between me and him)

Hi all,

This is Johnny.

Rumor is a big challenge for any big company as they take on a life of their own. One minute it’s just a rumor, but as it spreads across the internet, it often becomes the basis for fact—even when it isn’t fact at all. In most cases, they are triggered unknowingly or intentionally. KuCoin has been facing both lately, and the same people are usually involved.

Particularly, the recent FUDs created by Twitter guy nicknamed “otteroooo” is getting ridiculous, and each time otteroooo reached out to us, we try our best to answer his questions. Still, even if we explained everything, he is still ignoring facts and continue playing spreading his FUDs intentionally. While other users publicly admit their assumptions were wrong, otteroooo doesn't mind making mistakes over and over, which makes us believe he is either bad in fact-checking and analyzing, or he has some interest in spreading the FUD. 

So in short, most of the conversation between me and Ottoroooo is around wLUNA (attached the full conversation in the end). Otter asked me if KuCoin has wLUNA exposure, I said NO. 

Then he asked why there are many wLUNA in KuCoin’s wallet. 

I explained that before the LUNA incident, KuCoin supported LUNA (now LUNC) transactions in two chains — mainnet and ERC-20. And at the time, the LUNA token on ERC-20 is called Wrapped LUNA (wLUNA). 

His further question was if KuCoin has ever supported wLUNA deposit and withdrawal. I shared the links to two KuCoin announcements with him. ERC-20 LUNA has been supported in Jan 2021, and the service was suspended in May 2022. 

That’s the end of the conversation. I also explained that as a platform (same for other crypto exchanges), most funds in KuCoin wallets do not belong to KuCoin, they belong to our users. So it is our responsibility to keep them secure and make sure users can always withdraw in full whenever they want. 

Having a LUNC wallet does not necessarily mean KuCoin as a company is holding lots of LUNC tokens, and I'm sure the difference is obvious. 

For the so-called KuCoin employee whistleblows, actually there are many logic errors there. But we also made a clarification (sorry it is in Chinese as the rumor is in Chinese) that:

1. KuCoin does not have any exposure to LUNA & wLUNA;

2. Risk management is essential at KuCoin

3. Our recent KuCoin fundraising started in this March, and it has nothing to do with LUNA incident in May

4. KuCoin still has over 300 job openings

More importantly, this whistleblow does not make any sense to me as otteroooo can not prove that guy is an ex-employee of KuCoin. Such fake pictures can be made in 10 secs. 

Meanwhile, I also noticed some voices out there claiming that otteroooo is trying to profit from spreading FUD or even blackmail some platforms. I hope these are FUDs too.  (Link1, Link2)

Personally, I think what otteroooo is trying to do is good, alerting people about crypto platforms that may have issues. But I would suggest otteroooo to share information with more genuine source and proof. Otherwise, he is hurting his own credibility. 

Below you can find the screenshots of the full conversation between me and ottoroooo.