Cardano protocol Meld denies rumors of insider trading

Self-described “DeFi, non-custodial, banking protocol,” Meld responded to allegations of foul play, stating no insider trading had taken place on its platform.

Meld denies wrongdoing

The accusations stemmed from on-chain analysis conducted by TapTools, highlighting a series of large token sales.

Further sleuthing revealed the address responsible had sold tokens worth 1.24 million ADA, or about $405,000 at today’s price. Since September 2022, the address has been credited monthly with between three and seven million MELD tokens.

In addition, TapTools had identified two associated addresses that also sold but never bought MELD tokens. These token sales totaled just over one million ADA, or approximately $340,000 at today’s price.

“The wallet has 2 associated addresses that also have a history of selling without having purchased any, which have sold a combined 1.04M $ADA worth of $MELD.”

With that, TapTools asked, “where did the tokens come from?” while speculating the address is controlled by an insider.

In response, Meld said a “private sale token holder” owns this address, and they have no control over the actions of token holders. Further, the company denied suggestions that staff were involved and benefited from the token sales.

“Hey @TapTools the transactions you are pointing out are (confirmed) private sale token holder getting their $MELD tokens from the vesting contract and they have decided to sell. This is DeFi 101. If you are insinuating that these are MELD staff? They are NOT MELD staff.”

CryptoSlate reached out to Meld for comment, but a response had not been received at the time of press.

Public testnet immenent

Meld was started in late 2020 by CEO Ken Olling and was the first company to run an Initial Stake Pool Offering (ISPO.) More than 620 million ADA was staked by the Cardano community, raising approximately $10 million. The company raised a further $35 million through private token sales.

The firm aims to “meld” fiat and crypto by offering users fiat loans against their crypto holdings without giving up custody of their digital assets. At the same time, users also benefit from interest on the crypto collateral over the life of the loan.

Per the roadmap, Q1 2023 will see the launch of the public testnet. A recent tweet pinned down the go-live date to Jan. 16.