CoinMarketCap reportedly released 3 fake SHIB contract addresses and started a Twitter firestorm

There was a bit of drama on Twitter Thursday that lasted until mid-Friday afternoon, when the developers of the popular Shiba Inu (SHIB) meme token released a statement claiming that CoinMarketCap published three contract addresses: fake SHIBs, Binance’s include blockchains from Smart Chain (BNB), Solana (SOL) and Terra Luna (LUNA). Shiba Inu’s team claimed that the addresses were not secure and CoinMarketCap refused to fix the alleged error. At press time, contract addresses are still visible on CoinMarketCap.

Official statement on the recent actions of @CoinMarketCap . pic.twitter.com/DXP2wZRhYC

to???? Shib (@Shibtoken) January 13, 2022

Earlier in the day, CoinMarketCap issued a response stating that the contract addresses listed on the page were wormhole addresses designed to facilitate cross-chain transactions. according to the popular cryptocurrency price tracking site, Shiba Inu staff did not go through official channels to contact them for further clarification.

Please note the non-ETH contract addresses on this page @shibtoken are wormhole addresses designed to facilitate cross-chain transactions from packaged versions of this assethttps://t.co/IhbNBJkwnf

to???? CoinMarketCap (@CoinMarketCap) January 14, 2022

Although Shytoshi Kusama, honorary director of the Shiba Inu project, did not comment on the matter, the developer did not comment retweeted a post by Twitter user @wenfloat which read:

“If they allow scammers to put fake contracts on our site (we’re only ERC-20), they should shut down SHIB. At least don’t support scams. They have ignored us for months, where is their professionalism ?”

Shiba Inu are known for their impressive gains over the past 12 months, as well as their (sometimes overly) enthusiastic investors. Last December, former SHIB influencer and medical QA platform Ask the Doctor filed a lawsuit against Shytoshi Kusama for alleged defamation and threatened to reveal his personal identity in court. In response, the site lost about 10,000 followers from 58,000 in a matter of hours and its Twitter posts were buried in a wave of mockery, along with hundreds of one-star reviews on TrustPilot (most of which have since been removed).