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'I F**ked Up': SushiSwap Creator Chef Nomi Returns $14M Dev Fund
SushiSwap creator "Chef Nomi" has returned all $14 million in ether, apologizing to the DeFi project's community for suddenly liquidating his holdings.
Updated Sep 14, 2021, 9:55 a.m. Published Sep 11, 2020, 4:30 p.m.

SushiSwap creator "Chef Nomi" has returned all $14 million in ether
- The pseudonymous individual transferred the 38,000 ETH back to the original developer fund wallet soon before 16:00 UTC today, according to Etherscan.
- Nomi announced the decision in a tweet, saying whatever reward he deserves for creating the project would be decided by the community:
I have returned all the $14M worth of ETH back to the treasury. And I will let the community decide how much I deserve as the original creator of SushiSwap. In any currency (ETH/SUSHI/etc). With any lockup schedule you wish.https://t.co/QwFj5SeeuQ
— Chef Nomi #SushiSwap (@NomiChef) September 11, 2020
- The SushiSwap creator suddenly sold the tokens last weekend, prompting a 73% crash in the price of the SUSHI token and creating a massive backlash from the project's supporters and accusations of an exit scam.
- This ultimately led to Nomi transferring ownership of the project to FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.
- SushiSwap co-founder 0xMaki said he was disappointed in the liquidation, according to an interview with CoinDesk China.
- Following the news that the $14 million in ether had been returned, the price of SUSHI soared from $2.26 to $2.70, a rise of 16%.
- SushiSwap is a massively popular fork of DeFi project Uniswap that is still less than three weeks old.
- In another tweet Friday, Nomi said:
To everyone. I fucked up. And I am sorry.
— Chef Nomi #SushiSwap (@NomiChef) September 11, 2020
Read more: Fishy Business: What Happened to $1.2B DeFi Protocol SushiSwap Over the Weekend