Siqi Chen, CEO of Runway, finds himself embroiled in controversy after previously raising crypto funds for cancer research upon his daughter's diagnosis. Now, he faces accusations of executing a rug pull with the 'Zero' token.
The controversy began when Chen’s daughter, Mira, was diagnosed with a brain tumor. In response, he sought donations on social media for a children's brain tumor fund. An X user created a meme coin known as MIRA on the Solana blockchain to aid these efforts. Of the entire MIRA supply, half was entrusted to Chen.
The coin gained traction online. As support grew, Chen’s holdings surged to $14 million. At press time, MIRA was trading at $0.01518, having dropped 13% in the last 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.
Days later, Chen launched a token called "zero" on Pump.fun. Despite his cautionary stance, stating "This coin will go to zero… don’t buy it," the same wallet address led investors to purchase the token. This action saw its market cap exceed $6 million within an hour.
In a surprising move, Chen sold his ZERO holdings, acquiring 444 SOL, which he subsequently burned.
"I didn’t expect everyone to just be able to see it and buy it – I thought it’s something I would have needed to tweet about," Chen stated on Twitter. He acknowledged selling 40% of the supply in panic. Despite profiting 444 SOL, he reinvested and burned these assets to demonstrate transparency, apologizing for the mishap. He assured followers of his commitment to MIRA’s mission, emphasizing that a rug pull would be illogical.
Chen further clarified his intention was purely educational: to understand Pump.fun’s mechanics so that other pediatric disease organizations might replicate MIRA’s success.
"I take responsibility and am committing to making every single affected wallet whole out of my own personal funds," Chen promised.
Nevertheless, blockchain investigator ZachXBT noted Chen used a similar justification recently with another token.