Ape Terminal Scam Part 2: Hatu Sheikh's dark past
UnkownIn this episode we will review all of the public posted comments of Ape Terminal and expand on all the juicy tips we got on the Ape Team. Thank you for all the support we received via email.
The Ape Team regrets their association with MacnBTC and accused him for $20M in liquidations. Evidence suggests that the Ape Terminal Team created at least 6 scam projects, possibly resulting in liquidations of $20M or more.
We will shine some light on all the previous times the Ape Team has done exactly that: Create a Project, liquidate tokens to make millions.
When we looked at the previously launched IDOs on Ape Terminal we noticed that a few of them looked almost identical and both ended in the word “App”. MoonApp.io and BrcApp.com
What was interesting was to see another ex-DAO Maker employee “Chris” working at MoonApp.com.
What is more interesting is that MoonApp and Ape Terminal are the same product: A launchpad with MEV Tools. Even the order is the same for Ape Terminal.
Sandwich, Sniping, Presales, Limit orders, copy trade…
Then I started investigating their Twitter Accounts and noticed another clear trend: Mobile App CGI videos. Again, it could be a coincidence, but it felt like all the projects are run by the same people.
In our search through past DAO Maker projects with similar traits, such as App, CGI and referral system, we came across StepApp and CryptoGPT.
Another website with CGI starting video and big claims. Often found the same recurring features: Hatu & Chris Lee were involved.
Coincidence? Well, we know the Ape Terminal team is careless. Calling all of their scams the same way, making them all look very similar and using the same launch strategy. If you have more info for us let us know: ApeTerminalScam@proton.me
ZachXBT also mentioned CryptoGPT which was rebranded to LayerAI. He specifically mentioned that the project likely was created to capitalize on the hype of GPT.
- Domain registered recently
- New Twitter Account
- Fake Following/Engagement
- Immediately Launched token
- Team/insider tokens unlock early on
I also had a VERY cringeworthy and scammy conference in Korea of CryptoGPT on YouTube.
It seemed as though there were only paid actors, along with Chris Lee and a team member from CryptoGPT.
https://www.youtube.com/live/TPbF0Auv8k0?si=h3xqXVviYS8F9aaa
The irony here is that the song the DJ played is called: “Everything is Wrong”
We started investigating CryptoGPT in more depth to determine who the team is. Eventually, we got the info from one of the mods. The operation was led by a person called Haroldas.
A quick Google of his name showed that wasn't his first company and to what surprise we found again a link to Chris Lee's company Reblock. Another Google search on Hatu Sheikh also showed that he was involved with Brokoli.
Hatu, Haroldas, and Chris have been working together on at least 3 projects: CryptoGPT, Brokoli, and MoonApp.
Hatu was mentioned as a Team member of the project StepApp and Advisor to Primal which both seem highly associated with MoonApp, and BrcApp.
MoonApp and Ape Terminal are the identical products:
A Launchpad and MEV Tools that provide sniping services, limit orders, copy trading etc.
Digging out some of Hatu's past project involvements:
And probably much more. These were the ones I could find by just searching Hatu Sheikh's name on Google.
List of projects Hatu was involved with (Proven):
Titan Hunters, ShopNext, Heroes & Empire, Mochi Market, Xcad, MetaGaming Guild, Primal, Kaby Arena, Derace, Inspect, Gamefi, MetaPax, StepApp…
Speculation:
BrcApp, MoonApp, CryptoGPT
All projects that listed Hatu as an advisor were listed before 2023. It's plausible that he is still advising in private until today. Here we can see the performance of the projects Hatu has advised.
Just look at the similarity of the projects below. Can’t be a coincidence so let’s investigate!
Starting to Look on Onchain
We found a lot of detailed information. Being an advisor means nothing in our space, however many scammers call themselves advisors while owning the majority token supply. This is exactly what Ape Terminal accused MacnBTC of.
I initiated my investigation with the most known scam of all of the above: CryptoGPT
We started with the wallet that minted CryptoGPT Token: 0x01dd3cfaa6aa46f2048ebb66a70022c858185375
Then CryptoGPT team sent most of the supply into 10 different wallets.
16% of the supply of CryptoGPT was from 0x0…85375 to 0xa...dea08. A wallet that is connected to a winner of Ape Terminal’s Inspect IDO and many DAO Maker tokens.
CryptoGPT rebranded 153 days ago to LayerAI. Likely because of ZachXBT calling the token a scam.
0xa...dea08 then sent tokens to 0xF...Fa63 and guess what we found in that wallet…
A bunch of MoonApp tokens getting dumped on Bybit.
Wallet 0xa...dea08 received 16% of CryptoGPT and 3.33% of MoonApp and dumped on Bybit right away. This wallet has been depositing around USD 100k worth of CryptoGPT (LAI) on Bybit, DAILY! In the last 70 days, this wallet dumped around USD 4.4M worth of LAI.
The project is already down -92% from ATH and the majority of people lost all their money in this scam and they are still dumping millions almost a year later. 🤯
Wallet 0xF…fa63 also received and instantly dumped the following:
Tenet:
22M Tokens (2.2% supply) of $TENET worth $3.3M USDT at the time, all dumped on TGE which represented around 20% of circulating supply.
Karate:
0.75% supply of $KARATE worth around $6M at the time. Dumped on TGE.
MoonApp:
40M Tokens (1.33% of supply) and 10% of circulating supply instantly dumped on TGE. Making this wallet likely one of the largest benefactors of MoonApp.
Terra Virtua:
0.5% of $TVK around $200k worth at the time.
DegenZoo:
12.5M Tokens (1.3% of supply) worth $650k at the time.
Some more investigation of 0xa...dea08 that had been constantly dumping LAI last 2 weeks. Investigation of 0xF...Fa63 showed a connection, to MoonApp, Tenet, Karate, and Degen Zoo. All DAO Maker listed projects. Next, we will look into 0x0..b0D7
We find 650,000 GAME and LAI being deposited on Gate.io worth around $160,000 USDT. As expected the wallet instantly dumped the CryptoGPT (LAI) Tokens on Gate.
Wallet 0x0..b0D7 is a Gate deposit account.
Then we found something VERY Interesting. This Gate account was used to sell Inspect Tokens from 2 winners of the Ape Terminal IDO…
Looking further I find DAO Tokens being sold in October. What is interesting is that DAO Maker Tweeted that Hatu Sheikh was Terminated from DAO Maker in October.
This Gate account is filled with DAO-related IDO transactions and also sold $DAO tokens on DAO Maker TGE 3 years ago.
Summary of Account 0x… b0d7
- Is a Gate Deposit Account of a Person or Market Maker
- Was used to sell Inspect IDO tokens of TWO winning Wallets
- Dumped $DAO on their TGE 3 years ago
- Won many IDOs of DAO Maker
- Got huge amounts of CryptoGPT (LAI) Tokens from the deployer and have been dumping them daily.
- Dumped $DAO in October
At this point, I am 90% sure 0x… b0d7 is Hatu Sheikh Gate account or an account owned by him with somebody else's KYC
Investigating the two Inspect IDO winning Wallets:
Now that we have one of Hatu’s Wallets, we investigated the inspect IDO winner wallets:
Inspect IDO Winner 1: 0x…e1a2
Won Inspect and deposited tokens to Hatus Gate account. Wallet owns $2.26M USDT. Nothing too interesting.
Inspect IDO Winner 2: 0x…b622
Owns a lot of MetaGaming Guild. A token that Hatu Sheikh an advisor for. This wallet also owns Gold Fever, MGL, SKEB, and Inspect, which are all DAO Maker or Ape Terminal IDOs.
Sent $80,000 worth of Atlas Navi Token to 0x…. 53Ae, a Kucoin deposit account.
Sent $365,000 worth of Manta DAO to 0x…bc35, a Binance deposit account.
Investigating the Kucoin Account:0x….53Ae
0x…b622 sent NAVI and NFG tokens to 0x….53Ae, a Kucoin deposit account, under which we found the following noteworthy transactions:
- $400k worth of MoonApp deposited on their TGE
- $1M+ Inspect tokens deposited since TGE, most likely sold on TGE
- Karate Tokens, Tenet and more Terra Virtua (TVK) Tokens
- Around $400k worth of Xcad Tokens deposited
- Around $500k in $DAO Tokens deposited
Conclusion: Most likely Hatu Sheikh’s Kucoin deposit wallet
Investigating the Binance Account: 0x…bc35.
(Inspect winner 2) 0x…b622 then sent Mantra DAO Tokens to a Binance account: 0x…bc35.
In this Binance account, we found this person sent 10M VANRY tokens ($60,000 USD) to Binance 24 days ago.
VANRY seemed familiar, so we checked the previous shady wallets again and found it in our old friend: 0x...Fa63. The wallet that dumped $4M worth of CryptoGPT(LAI) in the last 2 months as well as MoonApp.
24 days VANRY was sent to Binance and 11 days ago 3M was sent from Binance to 0x...Fa63. Maybe coincidence, but it seems we keep finding the same tokens over and over again.
No clear connection to Hatu Sheikh. We continued to follow the money. We looked for the largest incoming transactions and found:
$18,000,000 in stable coins were deposited from April 14 to April 19 into Binance account 0x…bc35 from three different addresses: 0x…6b5b, 0x…C19c and 0x…F568!
Wallet 1: 0x… 6b5b received 11M USDT on April 14, 2023, from Binance and Kucoin.
Wallet 2: 0x…C19c received 12M USDT April 12, 2023 from OKX, Gate, Kucoin, Binance.
Wallet 3: 0x…F568 received 2.5M USDT on April 12 from OKX Hot Wallet and 500k from 0x..55abf and this wallet received money from 0x…2ee1.
Wallet 4: 0x…2ee1 received 8M USDT during the same period.
A total of $33 MILLION USDT were deposited into Binance account between April 14 and April 20, 2024. All these wallets connect to MoonApp, Inspect IDO winners and CryptoGPT.
Where did this money come from? It could be explained by CryptoGPT. Massive dump by April 14 Token was already -50% at that point. We still don't have clear evidence.
Conclusion
I've uncovered a series of concerning patterns surrounding Hatu Sheikh and his associates, particularly Chris Lee and Haroldas. The investigation paints a picture of a group involved in multiple projects such as MoonApp, BrcApp, CryptoGPT, Step App and Ape Terminal, all exhibiting strikingly similar characteristics. The narrative suggests a troubling history of token liquidations possibly reaching 8-9 figures, with Hatu himself taking advantage of his advisor allocation. The evidence of wallet transactions unveils a complex network involving Hatu Sheikh, implicating him in the dumping of tokens across various exchanges, including Kucoin, Gate.io, and Binance.
I accept donations for my investigative work, appreciate all the support
0x4f00652f3E81165f25BbBa9f2Cc29769e527894e (ETH)
Summary of important wallets
Unclear but $18M in profits from CryptoGPT liquidation sent around
0x…bc35 is Kairon Labs’ Binance Account. Sent 18M USD to Binance
0x…2ee1 is potentially Kairon’s wallet to wash funds.
0x..3c19c received liquidations from Gate and Kucoin. Money is sent to Kairon
Hatu Sheikh’s Wallets:
0x…. 53Ae Kucoin Account (Confirmed)
0x… b0d7 Gate Wallet (Confirmed)
Kairon Labs' Wallets:
0x...Fa63 (Confirmed)
To be identified:
Extra:
Wallet that sent money to Hatu’s Kucoin deposit address has VANRY in it: 0x….921f9
Kucoin’s sub account for buying TVK: 0x..8763
Hatu’s Wallet took DAFI 3 years ago: 0x…5c09c
Hatu’s IDO wallet on DAO MAker: 0xb0b0f09a99d8ad135a54487aa327ec899cd744f1