Vitlik Buterin’s Joke Prompts Creation of the Protocol ($THE) — A New Pump And Dump Scam?

The Protocol (THE), a new crypto token created after Vitalik Buterin’s tweet, is soaring. Pic created on Cancva

YEREVAN (CoinChapter.com) — Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s Twitter joke has created a new cryptocurrency. The Protocol ($THE), as the project is called, is the latest entrant into the market. It, however, is already accused of being a scam.

On October 14, Buterin sarcastically called on followers to launch the new project, which they took to heart.

“Someone should make a project called “THE Protocol” so that their shills can say “Look, so-and-so mentioned THE!” pretty much any time anyone says anything,”
he tweeted.

“The Protocol” (THE) was created after Vitalik Buterin tweeted about it.

Buterin was clearly showing his frustration at fans of random projects which look to draw credit from influencers who supposedly mention them.

The Protocol (THE) is born out of a joke

Blockchain technology is one of the most important innovations in recent years. Some of the brightest minds in mathematics and information technology (IT) are involved in advancing the field.

However, its rising popularity has also attracted many developers looking for ways to make a quick buck. As a result, CoinChapter has also extensively covered various crypto scams.

While Buterin’s tweet was a joke, some chose to create the token anyways. Within hours, THE, the native token of the project, was soaring.

THE crypto token rallied after Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin tweeted about it.

Shocked that someone created THE token, Vitalik regretfully tweeted, “Ok, what have I done?”.

However, this did little to stop the rally. In fact, within minutes, the price of The Protocol spiked by around 3,000%.

Developers of the new project also transferred around 100 million THE tokens (10% of the total supply) to Buterin’s wallet.

Is THE token a scam?

Hours after the token’s parabolic rise, users began warning that the project was nothing but a scam.

One Reddit user accused Vitalik Buterin of creating a pump-and-dump scheme. Meanwhile, others pointed out that incidents like this make Governments suspicious of the industry.

“Looking at this I can only wonder why there’s so many people who think crypto is a joke and a huge scam,”
one user commented.

Experts from blockchain security firm PeckShield also warned that some contracts associated with $THE supply are honeypots.

PechShield alert has flagged The Protocol as a potential scam.

The Facebook profile of THE token has over 2,500 followers, with Vitalik Buterin’s tweet as its display picture. According to DexTools, THE trades at $0.01510 per token. MEXC Global, the centralized cryptocurrency exchange, has listed THE token.

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