In the VIP room of the trading platform, smoke swirled, the rich aroma of whiskey mixed with the spicy scent of cigars. I, Su Chen, leaned on the leather sofa, my fingertips tapping absentmindedly on the armrest, watching the woman in front of me.
Lin Wei.
One of the representatives of the 'Spark Chain' project team, dressed in a sharply tailored black suit dress, gold-rimmed glasses, hair meticulously pinned up, looking professional, capable, and even a bit ascetic. But those eyes peering through the lenses concealed too much shrewdness and calculation.
She was speaking eloquently, with the PPT displaying beautiful visions and exaggerated return rates, her words filled with glamorous terms like 'community', 'consensus', 'future'. A few obvious 'retail investors' in the audience listened with shining eyes.
I sneered internally. Another standard harvesting script. Overestimated valuation, huge fundraising, team background packaged beautifully, all waiting to be cut clean after going live.
My task is to burst this bubble. For myself, and for those ordinary people who might be swindled out of everything.
The exchange meeting ended, and the crowd gradually dispersed. I held a wine glass and seemingly casually walked to her side.
“Ms. Lin’s speech is excellent.” My tone was flat, revealing no praise or criticism.
She turned around, pushed up her gold-rimmed glasses, revealing a professional smile: “Mr. Su, you flatter me, you're an expert, please guide me more.” She extended her hand, her long fingers with clean nails, the handshake strength just right.
“There’s no need for guidance,” I released her hand, my gaze sweeping over the latest ultra-thin notebook she had placed on the table, “I’m just a bit curious about the token economic model of your project, especially the... initial distribution.”
Her eyes flickered for a moment, extremely fast, almost undetectable, but it didn’t escape my eyes. “Oh? If Mr. Su is interested, we have some non-public detailed information...”
“No need for such trouble.” I interrupted her, took out my own encrypted tablet, swiped my finger, and directly opened the Bubblemaps interface. The cold light of the screen reflected on my face and in her suddenly shrinking pupils.
I unreservedly input the token contract address of 'Spark Chain'.
Colorful bubble charts instantly appeared. A few unusually large bubbles clustered tightly together, particularly eye-catching.
“Ms. Lin, look,” I pointed at those few largest bubbles with my fingertip, my voice low but carrying cold pressure, “these addresses hold over 40% of the total holdings, and they obtained tokens at almost zero cost during the initial contract deployment. This is a typical case of high internal control.”
I clicked on the details of one of the bubbles, and the on-chain data unfolded like a flow, clearly showing the connections between addresses and the flow of funds.
“What’s more interesting,” I swiped my finger to bring up another layer of analysis, “look at these frequent small transfers, the destinations are hundreds of seemingly unrelated retail addresses. A typical 'net casting' operation, creating the illusion of active trading and dispersed holdings, attracting real retail investors to step in and take over.”
Her face turned slightly pale, the professional smile at the corner of her mouth becoming a bit stiff, but she still held on: “Mr. Su, on-chain data is public and transparent, some operations might be community incentives…”
“Community incentives?” I scoffed, my fingers quickly tapping to pull up a deeply hidden associated address and retrieve all its transaction records, “Then what about this address? Three days ago, it received a large transfer from the project party’s public treasury, and in the past 24 hours, continuously transferred tokens into the recharge addresses of three different small exchanges.”
I turned the tablet towards her, the data on the screen like a cold dagger pressed against her throat.
“Do you need me to continue tracking the selling situation of these tokens after they enter the exchange? Or should I check this address receiving funds from the project party, who the ultimate beneficiary is?”
Her breath became noticeably rapid, the gaze behind her gold-rimmed glasses completely flustered, her fingers unconsciously curling up. The previous composure and confidence disappeared, leaving only the panic of being caught red-handed and a hint of fear.
I leaned forward, getting closer to her, lowering my voice so that only the two of us could hear:
“In the primary market fundraising, using beautiful PPTs and empty promises to raise money; the team and early investors take nearly half the chips, with almost zero cost; creating a false sense of prosperity through self-buying and selling via controlled addresses before and after going live; attracting retail investors to rush in afterward…”
My gaze swept across her chest, slightly rising and falling from nervousness, my tone dripping with unhidden sarcasm:
“It's time for you 'core team' to start selling off precisely, right? Leaving a mess behind and a bunch of ordinary investors who lost everything.”
She opened her mouth, seeming to want to explain something, but in the end, no sound came out, just a pale face looking at me, like a fish out of water.
Just when I thought victory was certain.
She suddenly took a deep breath, the panic on her face receding like a tide, replaced by a strange, mixed smile of danger and allure. She even raised her hand, gently removing her gold-rimmed glasses, revealing a pair of sparkling, aggressively penetrating eyes.
“Mr. Su is indeed well-deserved of his reputation, with astonishing insight.” Her voice was no longer deliberately professional, but carried a lazy, tempting rasp, “But have you ever thought... why am I able to be 'cornered' here so easily? Why is my computer conveniently placed within your reach?”
My heart sank suddenly.
Before I could react, she extended her long fingers painted with lipstick, lightly tapping on the screen of my tablet, sliding over those deadly transaction records.
“These addresses, these transfers... perfect like a textbook, aren’t they?” She chuckled lightly, her body slightly leaning forward, revealing a small patch of delicate, smooth skin and a hint of curves under the V-neck of her suit dress, “Doesn’t it seem... intentionally laid out, waiting for someone like you to discover it?”
A layer of cold sweat instantly broke out on my back! Was it a trap?!
“The 'ultimate beneficiary' address you found,” her red lips parted slightly, exhaling like orchids, revealing a wallet address that gave me goosebumps, one I used to privately receive certain 'gray' profits, absolutely anonymous! “Does it look familiar, Mr. Su?”
How does she know?! That address I've never used with anyone!
“Bubblemaps is very useful, isn’t it?” She imitated my tone from earlier, her fingertips sliding over my wrist like the most cunning snake, bringing a chilling shiver, “It can see the token distribution, but sometimes... the clearest traps are often hidden beneath the most obvious data.”
She picked up her phone and shook it at me, screen facing me. It showed a recording interface, with the duration already over twenty minutes! And in another window, glaringly was the complete recording of the so-called 'internal control' evidence I just showed her!
“You said, if this recording and screen capture were to 'accidentally' leak now, with the title 'Famous short-seller Su Chen fabricates data, maliciously shorts the quality project Spark Chain'...” She tilted her head, her smile sweet yet malicious, “Will the market and regulators believe your 'justice messenger' more, or will they believe the 'ironclad evidence' provided by me, the 'victim'?”
I suddenly stood up, but felt a wave of dizziness! That glass of whiskey from earlier... had a problem?!
Strength was rapidly draining.
She also stood up, her high heels silent on the carpet, yet it felt like she was stepping on my heart. She walked in front of me, reaching out, slowly straightening my tie that had tilted slightly due to excitement, her movement intimate like a lover, but her gaze was as cold as a knife.
“Mr. Su, you want to be the hero who exposes darkness, but unfortunately...” Her fingers lightly traced my cheek, with an eerie touch, “This water is much deeper than you think. You want to use Bubblemaps as a mirror to expose monsters, but didn’t expect that the monster reflected in the mirror might be you yourself?”
I tried to push her away, but my arms felt heavy and unresponsive, my vision started to blur and sway.
She leaned close to my ear, whispering in a tone only I could hear:
“Now, Mr. Judge...”
“Are you going to sit down obediently and discuss the conditions of 'cooperation'? Or should I help you... 'fall from grace'?”
Her red lips almost touched my earlobe.