The exchange’s Anti-FUD Fund was established soon after a dispute between KuCoin CEO Johnny Lyu and a whistleblower who said the exchange was bankrupt.
The CEO of cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin claims that the company is establishing a “Anti-FUD Fund” to find “FUDers,” potentially pursue legal action against them, and instruct cryptocurrency users on how to spot false information.
The fund was revealed on July 26 on Twitter by the exchange’s CEO, Johnny Lyu, just days after writing a blog post denouncing Twitter user “Otteroooo” for disseminating false information about his company.
The first of the three components of the Anti-FUD fund, according to Lyu, is education, which would “provide knowledge, including what is FUD and how to differentiate it” through online and offline channels.
The fund will also encourage and promote responsible industry leaders and influencers that guide followers or product consumers away from FUD.
Finally, the fund will work to identify and prosecute anyone who “deliberately propagate FUD.”
Earlier this week, Lyu addressed the issue of market FUD in an interview with Indian Express, stating that those who spread rumors should be held responsible for their actions since they may have an impact on the market and that Web 3.0 technology can assist advance tracking technology.
“The accountability mechanism in the Web 2.0 era is not mature enough and the cost of spreading rumors is very low.”
In addition to mentioning the company’s attempts to expand its services into India, he made the remarks to the outlet at the same time.
The creation of the Fund follows a contentious conversation that took place between Lyu and whistleblower Otteroooo on July 2.
Otteroooo claimed that KuCoin was exposed to the defunct Wrapped LUNA (wLUNA) coin, which plummeted dramatically in May and rendered the exchange bankrupt. Lyu refuted the claims that the exchange was bankrupt and exposed to LUNA internally. Twitter has subsequently deleted Otteroooo’s account.
Many in the cryptocurrency sector may be happy to hear about Lyu’s new campaign against FUD and those who promote it, but there could be a catch. While some supporters of cryptocurrency projects make an effort to counter false statements intended to harm a project, others are of the opinion that any unfavorable press, regardless of its validity, is FUD.
Simon Dixon, the creator of the online investing platform BanktoTheFuture, provides an example of the latter. On July 26, he emphasized that his concerns regarding troubled crypto lender Celsius’s financial sheet had drawn accusations that he was only distributing false information. Dixon, who has backed several initiatives to help Celsius, asserted that his worries were valid and substantiated by statistics.
