This week, the cryptocurrency community was shaken after the announcement of Kadena’s sudden closure sent the price of KDA crash by over 60% in just a few hours. The massive price collapse triggered a huge sale as investors rushed to understand the abrupt closure of the once-promising blockchain project. Soon after, a shocking expose by analysts revealed that the problems ran much deeper market conditionsalluding to serious internal faults and mismanagement.
The Kadena scandal was exposed after KDA’s price collapse
One day after Tuesday’s KDA price collapse, crypto analyst Lovrin revealed on social media X that several Kadena employees were allegedly caught short-selling the leveraged token shortly before closing announcementsensuring profits of tens of millions of dollars. Reports indicate that cryptocurrency exchanges would facilitate these trades, painting a coordinated picture internal manipulation.
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Adding fuel to the scandal is a viral post from cryptocurrency market commentator @Katexbt exposed further accusations against Kadena’s leadership. The post alleged that Kadena founders Stuart Popejoy and Will Martino were being sued by family members over a personal loan used to finance Kadena, raising questions about its financial transparency from the start.
Katexbt claimed that the blockchain was indeed non-functional, claiming a yield of 480,000 transactions per second, but lacked real users or wallets. Publicly promoted partnerships and institutional involvement were reportedly exaggerated or fabricated, adding further doubt to the legitimacy of the Kadena project.
The team would also hire a KOL Agencyprioritizing selling tokens for real money over paying the marketing company for its services. Further allegations point to complex links between Kadena’s leadership and affiliated companies, including the Kaddex domain, which was said to have been registered under Popejoy’s Kadena Eco family golf club in Italy.
Katexbt said the blockchain project was the subject of a lawsuit at one point, but it made little difference as the team hid behind a maze of LLC. Even more shocking, the crypto commentator claimed that the Kadena team had worked with Francesco Melpignano, former CEO of Kadena Eco, to mine large quantities of KDA, which were then sold at peak prices, resulting in profits estimated between $20 and $80 million. Following this, community members reportedly ousted Melpignano, although Katexbt claims the former CEO remains on the payroll of a shell company.
Information on the closure of Kadena
Tuesday, Kadena released a public statement confirming the cessation of all commercial activities. The team emphasized that despite the liquidation of the organization, the Kadena blockchain will continue to operate independently according to a regulation decentralized model.
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The announcement described the closure as a response to market volatility and adverse conditionsexpressing gratitude to staff, partners and the community. The Kadena team clarified that the blockchain itself was not owned or operated by the company, underlining this independent miners and the maintainers will govern it in the future. They also noted that approximately 566 million KDA remains to be distributed as mining rewards until 2139, while 83.7 million tokens are expected to leave the block by November 2029.
Featured image from Getty Images, chart from Tradingview.com