Waves founder Ivanov threatens investors burned in $530m DeFi debacle — ‘I’ll find you if I want to’

Ever since investors accused Alexandr Ivanov of syphoning $530 million from the Waves blockchain, the founder has dismissed their allegations as nothing more than FUD.

Now Ivanov has gone on the offensive by forming a Telegram group where he lambasts his critics with insults, mockery, and threats.

Launched April 14, the group, dubbed, “Waves Issues:: enjoying the FUD so far?”, quickly attracted over 400 members. Many are investors who lost money through a scheme that drained user deposits on the Waves lending protocol Vires Finance last year.

“Send me your location and I’ll personally fuck you up,” Ivanov posted in reply to one user who accused him of “hiding in Dubai.”

Ruined our lives

After repeatedly demanding the user send his location, Ivanov said, “I’ll find you if I want to,” and moved on to ridiculing other group members.

The fate of hundreds of millions of dollars on the Waves blockchain has long been a simmering mystery in DeFi. In March, DL News reported that between February and April 2022, several wallets which appear connected to Ivanov drained $530 million in user-deposited funds from the lending protocol Vires Finance.

On-chain records show the same wallets sending over $220 million worth of crypto to Binance in the months that followed. “They ruined our lives,” said one user in response to DL News’ story on Waves.

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Ivanov has consistently denied he had anything to do with the losses and has expressed frustration with the criticism of his alleged role in the failures at Waves and Vires Finance. “It’s all allegations and rumours with no proofs,” he told DL News over Telegram in March.

Whenever investors confronted Ivanov about the debacle, he typically lashed out with insults and challenges. Now he’s at it again.

‘I’ll visit you one by one with my Russian mafia friends.’

—  Aleksandr Ivanov

In one exchange, a user asked Ivanov to post a picture of himself with a timestamp to prove it was really the Waves founder posting in the group. “I can post my dickpic for you buddy,” Ivanov replied.

Ivanov eventually posted multiple clothed pictures of himself, one of which appears to show him in a Dubai hotel room. He also posted the location of a Dubai hotel and challenged group members to meet him there.

Mocking behaviour

Ivanov’s mocking behaviour continued with him telling group members they had “too much free time” on their hands. Several posts later, Ivanov again told members to send him their locations. “I’ll visit you one by one with my Russian mafia friends,” he said.

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Ivanov told DL News he formed the new Telegram group to concentrate FUD in one place.

“People should not fud in product channels, because a lot of products are effectively relaunching right now.” he said over Telegram on Tuesday. “They can fud as much as they want here though. Insult me or whatever.”

What investors truly wanted, though, were answers from Ivanov on what happened to the millions lost on Vires Finance and their inability to withdraw funds from the Waves blockchain.

Missing millions

He continued to deny his involvement or offer an alternative explanation for the missing millions.

“Anyone who finds any crypto or property that I own can have it,” Ivanov posted to the group on April 16, echoing a previous tweet responding to accusations he had cashed out the money taken from Vires users.

Under his skin

Ivanov also repeatedly denied making money from Waves and told the group he had little to live off.

One member of the group posting under the name Su appears to have gotten under Ivanov’s skin. Ivanov accused Su of saying he owned multiple properties in Dubai. Su told DL News he made no such claim.

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Ivanov’s tone immediately became serious. “Please elaborate on your comments about my properties,” he said.

“Honestly I don’t care what you own or not own,” Su replied. “Couldn’t care less but that whole ‘I’m poor’ act is just a joke man. Please, stop it.”

‘Hopefully you get into a plane crash into a volcano that you can never get out of.’

—  Ivanov critic

Ivanov wasn’t the only one dishing out personal threats in the group. “Hopefully you get into a plane crash into a volcano that you can never get out of,” one user told Ivanov.

“How will that help you?” Ivanov responded.

“I am not expecting our money back. seeking revenge only,” the same user said.

“You won’t get your money back,” Ivanov replied.