Uniswap employee fired after memecoin liquidity pull: 'Not behavior we support or condone'

Crypto Ecosystems • August 13, 2023, 4:30AM EDT
Published 1 minute earlier on
The Block

Quick Take

  • After it was brought to light that someone who works on Uniswap “effectively rugged” a memecoin, the decentralized exchange’s founder announced that the individual no longer works on the DEX.

Uniswap founder Hayden Adams shared on X (formerly Twitter) that the team behind the decentralized exchange removed an employee after what some call a rug pull.

Responding to a post detailing how FrensTech — a memecoin riding the hype of the new friend.tech social platform on Base — was deployed and "effectively rugged" by developer AzFlin, Adams said: "Wanted to let people know this person is no longer with the company."

"Not behavior we support or condone," Adams added.

According to LinkedIn, AzFlin is the Twitter and GitHub name for Allen Lin, a smart contract engineer who worked at Uniswap since July 2022. Previously, he was a lead engineer at NFT marketplace Genie.

Moving the ether to another chain

Only hours after deploying the FrensTech memecoin on Base, AzFlin moved 14 ether ($25,900) off of Base through the cross-chain protocol Hop. "He removed liquidity he added from fees and pocketed 14 ETH from fees," UniswapVillain detailed on X, noting: "He sold the tokens he removed from liquidity even."

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"This is wild to me that someone who is doxxed and works for Uniswap would do this," they added.

AzFlin has since added "(unemployment arc)" to their username on X. "Got fired from UniSwap, but gained 600 new followers and Crypto Twitter villain status," they joked, adding: "Net neutral, to be honest."

AzFlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.


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About Author

Adam is the managing editor for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He is based in central Europe and was a managing editor and podcast host at the crypto exchange OKX's former research arm, OKX Insights. Before that, he co-founded BeInCrypto.com, which he elevated into one of the leading crypto media brands at its peak as the editor-in-chief. Earlier, he served as the editor-in-chief at Bitcoinist.com. Before joining the blockchain and crypto industry, he worked for Looper.com, Grunge.com and SVG.com. He tweets via @XBT002 and can be emailed at [email protected].