Author: Weilin, PANews

Recently, the AI Agent launch platform Clanker, deployed on the Base network, has been embroiled in a public relations crisis. In the early hours of May 5, Clanker founder and CEO Jack Dishman announced on the X platform that project developer _proxystudio had decided to leave immediately. The reason for the departure was that he was exposed for having a shocking "criminal record"—during his time working at the well-known DeFi project Velodrome Finance, he stole approximately $350,000 from the team wallet.

Although _proxystudio later returned the funds, the incident still had far-reaching negative effects, impacting his work at Clanker.

As of 10 AM on May 7, _proxystudio's last tweet was a retweet of a post from May 2, and the developer had not responded to the matter. However, some users pointed out that according to ClankerNews, internal conflicts arose within Clanker due to a clash with Zora, leading to the ousting of founder _proxystudio, although there are also claims that ClankerNews is _proxystudio's account.

Warned the public to stay away from scammers, yet stole $350,000 from Velodrome

According to Alex Cutler, a core member of Velodrome and co-founder of Aerodrome Finance, it was recently revealed on the X platform that _proxystudio's previous identity was actually Gabagool.eth, and some crypto users pointed out that he was the mastermind behind ClankerNews. He was a well-known figure in the crypto industry, not only the founder of Information Token but also invited by Vice News to appear in a documentary about crypto scams, warning the public to stay away from scammers. Ironically, just months after his appearance, he orchestrated an internal theft within a DeFi project.

This $350,000 theft nearly brought the Velodrome team to the brink of collapse. Alex recalled that when the Velodrome project launched, it coincided with the Luna crash and turmoil in the crypto market, leaving only $350,000 in the team's account. "One day, a month after the launch, we woke up to find it (the funds) missing."

Initially, the outside world widely believed that the project team "rug pulled" (i.e., absconded with the funds). Since Alex was the only publicly identified member of the team, he was thrust into the spotlight of public opinion. Alex wrote, "I was still quite new to this field, yet he made me bear the responsibility."

He revealed that before the incident, Gabagool had joked about "dreaming that our funds were drained" and had tested privacy tools like Tornado Cash. He knew Alex was stranded in Europe due to the COVID-19 pandemic and in poor health, taking advantage of the team's vulnerability.

"Even more infuriating was that when the Velodrome team confronted him and demanded the return of the funds, Gabagool actually said he would 'keep 10% as a reward,'" Alex wrote.

On August 13, 2022, Velodrome released a statement after the theft incident, stating: "The attacker managed to transfer $350,000 from this (team-owned wallet)… We are extremely disappointed to find that the attacker was our team member Gabagool."

Later, Velodrome confirmed that Gabagool had returned the funds but ultimately decided to sever ties with the developer. However, the impact of this incident was far from over.

Proxystudio warned the public to stay away from fraud in Vice's documentary

According to Alex, at that time, Proxystudio issued an "apology" and then disappeared. However, he and the team chose not to take legal action for the following reasons: 1) The amount might not be sufficient for law enforcement to act, 2) We did not have the funds to address this issue, nor could we salvage the damaged protocol, 3) His sister pleaded with us not to do so, saying he might have suicidal tendencies.

The situation took a turn during a joint event between Farcaster and Clanker called FarCon on April 30 of this year. According to Alex Cutler, he unexpectedly recognized Gabagool at a Clanker event in SoHo, New York.

"I saw him—the guy who almost ruined my life," Alex wrote in a subsequent post. He stated that after confirming the identity, he confronted Gabagool on the spot, telling him, "You need to reveal your identity within 24 hours, or I will go public."

Faced with Alex's questioning, Gabagool initially tried to deny his identity but eventually gave up the disguise and attempted to "communicate" privately. Alex chose to leave but decided not to remain silent.

Clanker responds quickly, community users emphasize the importance of background checks

The Clanker team quickly responded upon learning that Gabagool was involved in the theft incident. On May 5, founder Jack Dishman stated: "Clanker has recently become aware of proxystudio's related behavior during his previous employment. Following the exposure of this information, proxystudio has decided to leave Clanker immediately."

Jack Dishman stated, "We want to assure our community, partners, and stakeholders that Clanker's operations and assets will not be affected by this incident. This matter is solely related to activities that occurred before he joined our organization." He continued, "Our team is implementing an urgent transition plan to ensure continuity of all operations. We will continue to commit to maintaining transparency and integrity and providing the community with an excellent token experience. Thank you for your continued support and trust during this time."

Alex Cutler also stated that it has been proven that _proxystudio is our disgraced former teammate gabagool.eth, and I can personally assure that Jack Dishman was completely unaware of this situation and handled it perfectly. The Clanker team has my full support as well as that of the Aerodrome team.

Currently, there is no evidence to suggest that Gabagool engaged in any malicious behavior during his tenure at Clanker (the project launched in November 2024). Clanker's token CLANKER reached a historical high of $128 shortly after its launch, with a valuation of $128 million. However, the token subsequently fell along with the entire AI agent sector, currently priced at $25.8. Since its launch, Clanker has generated $27 million in fee revenue, with an average daily income of about $38,000 in May.

Regarding the reasons for this incident, Quick Intel's founder @ninja_dev3 stated, "Why haven't we reached a stage where people conduct thorough background checks? This is true from both a project perspective and an ecosystem perspective. We have encountered similar situations multiple times in other projects. What concerns me most is why there are no checks." In response, Alex stated that he agrees this is a significant issue but also quite tricky. "Background checks wouldn't uncover this; there are no connections between individuals. I bet the money in his wallet was cleaned, etc. I have some ideas, but it's not easy."

At present, this incident serves as a warning to the crypto industry, highlighting the lack of a thorough team member review system, which may lead to losses for some projects. Gabagool was once a respected voice in the industry, and for this reason, the impact is widespread. This time, the Clanker team responded decisively, but _proxystudio has yet to respond, leaving some questions about the incident. PANews will closely monitor the follow-up developments.

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