“Looks like someone I discussed the rumor with … leaked the seed to ’cause a stir’ at my expense … It was not supposed to be readable ever unless I revealed it, so sorry about that.”
He added that he is “narrowing down the list of [people he] can trust.”
Cobie’s original statement was encrypted with SHA-256 hashing. Copie said that it is unlikely that the encryption was broken through a brute force method, noting that he has posted many encrypted rumors and that “no others have been broken.”
By encrypting the message, Cobie would have been able to prove he was the origin of the rumor if it was ever verified or keep the rumor private if it proved to be false.
Interpol declines to comment on case
CryptoSlate previously reported that no Red Notice for Zhao exists on the public Interpol website but did not eliminate the possibility of a private Red Notice.
Since publishing that report, CryptoSlate has obtained a statement from Interpol. In that statement, the agency did not confirm or deny that Zhao was the subject of a private Red Notice. Rather, it said that information shared with it “remains under the ownership” of its member countries and said that it “does not … comment on specific cases or individuals.”
Zhao himself has asserted that the rumors are false and has alleged that the rumors were planted by a competing cryptocurrency exchange. Zhao also asserted that an image of himself on the Interpol website is a photoshopped image.
Despite lacking evidence for any Red Notice, the incident likely influenced the crypto market. $266 million was withdrawn from Binance shortly after the news.
cryptoslate.com
