KIKI Community Seizes Control After $3 million Rug Pull Scandal

- $3 million embezzlement shakes the KIKI ecosystem, involving both internal and external betrayal. - Community uncovers fraud, retrieves funds, and assumes full governance. The KIKI community has seized control of the project following a $3 million rug pull scandal. On August 15, 2025, Cryptopolitan reported the incident stemmed from a mix of internal and external conspiracies. This betrayal prompted a complete overhaul of the governance structure, which the community now manages entirely. Initially, the community suspected an external hack caused the theft. On January 11, 2025, core team member James Afante announced his wallet was compromised, which caused the KIKI token price to crash. Using the KIKI PI bot, a proprietary token-tracking tool, the community launched its own investigation. Members soon uncovered that the stolen tokens passed through a wallet linked to a personal acquaintance of Afante. The community confronted Afante’s associate, who then admitted to the theft and cited personal jealousy as the motive. This confession enabled the community to recover a significant portion of the stolen assets. The recovery marked a pivotal victory and helped unravel deeper layers of fraudulent activity within the project. A further investigation revealed broader misconduct involving KIKI’s founder, Jay Ha. The community found evidence that Ha had sold locked KIKI tokens over-the-counter (OTC), claiming he needed to cover internal expenses even though the project’s treasury held over $2 million. Another founding member, JayC, confirmed the team moved tokens through the MEXC exchange to hide the transactions from public view. The KIKI PI bot also exposed more wallets that facilitated private sales, which undermined the token’s market value. In response to these findings, the community swiftly revoked all administrative privileges from Jay Ha and the original team. They compiled a detailed report that identified the fraudulent transactions and mapped the wallets used. This action led to a decisive overhaul, removing the founding team and transitioning governance entirely to the community.