According to CoinDesk, SatoshiVM's SAVM has stirred controversy in the crypto community due to a few wallets controlling a significant portion of the initial token supply. Millions of dollars worth of these tokens were dumped on market participants shortly after going live. SatoshiVM claims to be a Bitcoin layer 2 protocol powered by zero-knowledge rollup technology, which settles transactions on Bitcoin without sharing extra data with network validators.
SAVM was one of the most-hyped token issuances in recent months, with its market capitalization reaching as high as $90 million a few hours after issuance, according to DEXTools data. However, the controversy began shortly after it went live on January 19th. Data from on-chain analysis tool @bubblemaps shows that 15% of the token's supply was sent to a few wallets supposedly owned by market influencers who immediately sold the tokens upon receiving them.
Some prominent investors who participated in SatoshiVM's private sale confirmed they took profits from their positions but faced backlash as market observers questioned their motives for selling allocations in the first few hours after issuance. Analysis service @Lookonchain reported a wallet that received SAVM tokens from the publicly-known SatoshiVM team wallet received over $4 million worth of tokens after launch, selling $1.2 million worth in the first 48 hours after issuance.
SatoshiVM has denied all accusations and is holding a community ask-me-anything session on Thursday to directly answer queries. The team did not immediately respond to a message sent by CoinDesk in Asian morning hours on Thursday. Meanwhile, SAVM tokens have shown resilience amid the ongoing controversy, with prices ranging between $7 and $14 since January 19th and remaining popular among retail traders.