Recently I was booted from the Solice discord server after politely submitting questions about the state of Solice’s finances post-3AC debacle; all legitimate questions by any standard..
Solice is a metaverse project that uses the sales of its NFT to build upon the virtual city. Some of the citizens can be referred to as influencers such as Sol Big Brain or well-known firms like Animoca Brands (investor in Solice). The project is built with its own native token $SLC and currently there is staking of said token live on the platform.
We have covered Solice in the past, in one piece about different Solana-based metaverses ‘Solana is so meta’ on December 6th 2021 and lately ‘Solice Opens Beta’ on May 17th, 2022.
Current market value of $SLC is at $0.06172 (August 2nd, 2022) on CoinMarketMap and a 1X1 piece of digital land on Solice is going for 3,699 $SLC at this time, that’s 5.4 SOL or $217.34 at the time of writing). Solice avatars are priced higher at 23,000 $SLC/33.58 SOL or $1,353.27.
It has been a rough first half of the year for Metaverse-related tokens – and for crypto in general – but SLC has been particularly penalized with its current market price representing a mere 1.37% of its all-time high. This is a shame given the fact the project is on-going.
We have been trying to assert if this disproportionate adverse market reaction as reflected by the SLC price meltdown could be in part due to Solice’s connection with its main financial backer and latest round lead, the now infamous Three Arrows Capital (‘3AC’).
Unless you have no access to any crypto media, you already know that 3AC was ordered into liquidation at the end of June and that 3AC demise has been cited among the accelerators of the largest global crypto market cap meltdown ever endured by the crypto community. 3AC’s assets in the United States have been set to be transferred, encumbered or disposed of by its liquidators and the founders have been subpoenaed while their whereabouts were unknown.
What is most interesting is the fact of how 3AC works. In December of 2021 3AC was the leader of a $4.6 million funding round for Solice, a small amount for 3AC compared to the large deals they were involved with, but probably welcome and sizable funds for the early-stage Solice venture. 3AC has been known to “manage” their investee’s crypto treasury, essentially promising yields which were soon to become unsustainable. 3AC creditors include many well-known names of the blockchain industry.
In the event 3AC had convinced Solice to entrust them with their funds, part of Solice’s crypto funds may have been lost in the 3AC debacle. We could also assume that, unless these had been sold or not distributed, there could be a large amount of $SLC held by 3AC (or by its liquidators) with the possible danger of a disorderly fire sale. These alleged worst-case scenarios could be easily rebuked by the Solice team in a definite way, if they chose to disclose their wallet addresses for example in a public and transparent manner.
Some members of the Solice community reached out to us at Solanews with these concerns and we felt we should relay these concerns to the Solice team and give them the opportunity to tell their own story. In an attempt to promote transparency and clarify the situation I set out to ask some questions on Solice’s Discord server. As per the saying that ‘no good deed goes unpunished’, after a few reasonable questions I was booted from the Solice discord server.
My first questions were about the project’s goals, tokenomics and community rewards.
These questions were answered although in a snarky way by their community leader with pseudonym “bb”
Then my questions began to get to the nitty gritty of the situation.
> In 2021 Three Arrows Capital (3AC) led a $4.3 Million funding round for the project. What effect has the bankruptcy of that company had on the project?
> 3AC has been known to manage the treasury of their portfolio companies, has Solice lost funds due to the dissolution of 3AC?
> Are some of the funds of Solice locked away at all?
> Do you have a gauge as to how much SLC is held by 3AC? And how much of it is allocated to 3AC?
These questions were left unanswered, instead the community manager and another higher level member of the Discord server chose to be rude to me. The gaslighting could only be seen as clear red flags. Please bear in mind time fluctuations between replies as all parties were not in the same time zone.
The community lead tried to diminish my professionalism by implying I am not a ‘seasoned veteran’. Public mockery is hardly a professional response to legitimate questions and draws more attention to the reasons behind this allergic reaction to my questions.
I was told that similar questions have been raised repeatedly. I am not sure why these questions need to be repeatedly raised if they were simply and clearly answered – maybe sending me a link to the previous reply could have been helpful?
This triggered new questions: has the team shared transparently verifiable facts with their community? Are the funds of Soilce actually locked with the funds of 3AC and have they been partly lost or at risk of being liquidated?
The original AMA that was set for Friday July 29th was suddenly changed by the team to Saturday morning. In any event, most questions remained unanswered; instead of providing clear information, it looks as if the team decided to segregate the ‘type of questions’ the AMA participants could ask and which questions they could choose to answer. Not great AMA practices (!)
My questions were not addressed by the community leader.
It wasn’t until the final straw that further highlighted possible issues. After being ridiculed and talked down, I decided to try diplomacy one last time.
My diplomatic and respectful tone was met with strong arm tactics. I was permanently banned from the server… As I went on to check the answer from the team I noticed I no longer had access to the Solice server. Instead of being transparent or participating in fair dialogue the Solice team opted for silence and exclusion.
This indicates a problem, if not with funds – which may be safe for the sake of all $SLC token holders – but hard to know at this stage, at the least with the team’s communications management and the way to handle questions from their audience.
We at Solanews are not into FUD or disruption of a project but we are into transparency and integrity for the respect of token holders and all project supporters. Perhaps Solice can take some time to answer these questions clearly and honestly now, or continue to put their heads in the sand.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of Solanews or its officers and personnel.
