Arkham Intel Exchange, a new platform that incentivizes the unmasking of anonymous crypto users, stirred up controversy recently among the famously privacy-sensitive digital asset community. Despite the controversy, some are using the platform to identify those behind rug pulls and other crypto exploits. On Arkham’s marketplace, seven bounties worth about $92,400 are focused on identifying people who engaged in bad behavior.
The conflict between idealism and pragmatism is at the heart of the story. Crypto was initially pitched to those who value their privacy, but it was soon realized that it was possible to figure out the owner of superficially anonymous crypto wallets. This has been used by law enforcement and Arkham users to try to chase down crooks and scammers.
One example is the meme-coin project TOWELIE, which is accused of being a rug pull. A bounty of $324 of Arkham’s token has been put on identifying its backers. TOWELIE has no official social media account, making it difficult to communicate with them. This underscores why figuring out who is behind a project can be important, particularly when something goes wrong.
Other bounties on Arkham include identifying the individual or entity responsible for exploiting $415 million in cryptocurrency from FTX during its collapse, as well as pinpointing who is behind the addresses that hacked crypto market maker Wintermute for about $160 million.