Hu Lezhi burns $1.34M ETH

A mysterious Ethereum address, 0x1a1, burns 500 ETH ($1.3M) in a single transaction, attaching a message to the transaction. The three messages, signed off with the name “Hu Lezhi”, alleges that the CEOs of Kuande Investment, Feng Xin and Xu Yuzhi, are using mind-control devices to persecute employees of their company. The message continues, explaining that the device’s technology is constantly improving, with the capability to deprive victims of all their desires and senses, as a slave to the machine.

The act of "burning" cryptocurrency involves sending assets to a null address—a destination for which no private key exists and from which funds can never be recovered. By executing this irreversible action, the sender effectively removed this capital from the circulating supply permanently. This extreme financial measure serves to underscore the severity of the allegations, as it demonstrates a willingness to destroy significant value to ensure the message is noticed.

In addition to the burn of 500 ETH, the address also made several donations to WikiLeaks worth over 641.62 ETH ($1.72M) and several more to Endaoment, a charity organization, worth over 400 ETH ($1.07M). Several internet sleuths suspect that the funds belong to the company WizardQuant, whose founders match the names dropped in the transaction’s message, with Hu Lezhi being an employee who had access to these funds.

Furthermore, utilizing the Ethereum blockchain as a medium for this manifesto ensures that the text remains uncensored. Unlike centralized social media platforms or corporate servers where data can be deleted or hidden, transaction input data on Ethereum is immutable. Once the block containing this transaction was confirmed, the accusations became a permanent part of the digital ledger, accessible to anyone with an internet connection for the lifespan of the network.