Last updated on October 5, 2023
Xerberus, a UK-based Web3 risk management and platform, has released an investigative report on Ardana Labs, a failed stablecoin platform for the Cardano blockchain that attracted over $10 million in investments in 2021. According to the report, Ardana abruptly closed in November 2022, citing funding and project timeline uncertainties. However, the investigation highlights several factors that point to extraneous reasons for its downfall. Xerberus alleges that Ardana executives, including CEO Ryan Motovu, diverted 80% of the project’s funds into a personal wallet and made poor crypto investments, resulting in approximately $4 million in losses. Despite partnerships and successful fundraising efforts, Ardana never launched its stablecoin platform or bridge, and questionable asset management practices played a more significant role in its failure.
The investigation also reveals that Ardana Labs used an Ethereum wallet for its initial coin offering (ICO) in November 2021, with notable links to the address on Tokensoft’s ICO platform. Xerberus identified a $1 million transaction from venture capital firm Three Arrows Capital (3AC) to this address shortly after 3AC invested in Ardana. Funds from the fundraiser wallet were then routed to a “Target Wallet” through a series of intermediate steps, converted into CVX tokens, and transferred to what Xerberus alleges was an “Old Address” of Ardana founder Motovu. These funds were subsequently transferred to the Target Wallet, which was used for risky cryptocurrency investments, leading to significant losses. Xerberus also found that $4 million was funneled through centralized exchanges like Kraken, Coinbase, and Gate.io before reaching the Target Wallet, making it challenging to trace the funds beyond this point.
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