🌚➡️💀 MOON TO DEAD COIN | Project Review 18: $SUSHI

#sushi (SushiSwap) copy-pasted Uniswap, siphoned $1B of its liquidity in 10 days, mooned to $23… then its ANONYMOUS founder cashed out $14M and handed the keys to Sam Bankman-Fried. Today: -99.40%. 😳

The Raise:

▶️ No VC round, no traditional ICO, it was a fork of Uniswap with a governance token bolted on

▶️ Launched Aug 28, 2020 by pseudonymous devs "Chef Nomi" & "0xMaki"

▶️ The "raise" was a VAMPIRE ATTACK: bribe Uniswap's liquidity providers with SUSHI rewards, then migrate ~$800M of their liquidity overnight

▶️ NO premine, NO team allocation… BUT a 10% "dev fund" backdoor (remember this 👇)

Here's the Wild Part 👇

$SUSHI ATH: $23.43 (March 2021)

The Rug that (almost) killed it - Day 8:

→ Sept 5, 2020: Chef Nomi drained the entire dev fund → swapped for 37,400 ETH (~$14M)

→ SUSHI crashed ~73% in under a day

→ Community exploded in rage

→ Chef Nomi handed control to FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried (of ALL people)

→ Days later, Chef Nomi RETURNED the $14M and apologized 😳

The slow bleed after:

→ Survived the rug, built a real multi-chain DEX ($251B+ lifetime volume)

→ But endured years of leadership chaos, token emissions & DeFi competition

→ $23.43 → ~$0.16 Today

Today:

➡️ Trading near ~$0.16 (down ~99.40% from ATH)

➡️ TVL: ~$40M (from a $1B+ peak)

➡️ Dec 2025: control effectively SOLD for $3.3M to a new team

➡️ Real product, real volume, token still round-tripped ~99%

Lesson for my CryptoPatel Family:

👉 "No premine, no team allocation" can STILL hide a backdoor. Chef Nomi's 10% "dev fund" = an instant $14M rug button. READ the contract & allocations.

👉 ANONYMOUS founders = you have zero recourse. He rugged, and the only reason you weren't wiped was his change of heart. Don't rely on luck.

👉 Even the coin that "won the DeFi war" (took Uniswap's liquidity) still did -99%. Winning a narrative ≠ holding forever.

👉 Real product + real volume + STILL -99%. For the 19th time: BOOK YOUR PROFITS.

A token can survive a rug, a founder exit, and a change of ownership and STILL destroy the people who held from the top. Take profit into strength. Trust contracts, not "Chefs."

Not Financial Advice. ALWAYS DYOR.