CertiK delists g8keep after founder threatens legal action

Crypto auditing firm CertiK has delisted startup g8keep from its site after the company’s co-founder Harrison Leggio accused CertiK of a “malicious and targeted attack” and threatened legal action.

Leggio — known as Pop Punk on X (formerly Twitter) — complained about the listing on Wednesday, asking CertiK to remove the project from its “garbage platform.”

He claims that CertiK gave g8keep a low security score because “we didn’t work with your fraudulent and malicious company.” He added, “I’ll hand my money directly to Kim Jong Un before I work with you.”

CertiK listed g8keep on August 28, 2024, giving it a security score of 47.92 out of 100. The listing notes that CertiK hasn’t audited the firm, that no third party has audited its code, and that there are no audits available.

Screenshot of CertiK’s listing of g8keep taken by Leggio.

Read more: Is CertiK running a BS bug bounty program?

Despite this, Leggio claims, “We received audits with three industry-leading firms.” Two hours later, he noted that CertiK had removed the listing from its site.

“[CertiK] claimed data is sourced directly from CoinMarketCap. This is a lie. We are not listed there nor do we have a token,” he added.

”We had to threaten legal action. Fuck you CertiK.”

The CertiK team, however, told Protos it “used public information related to g8keep’s recent funding history to create a profile,” and that it “delisted the g8keep profile after receiving a request from their team.”

It said, “CertiK Skynet focuses on adding new Web3 projects with positive signals, like fundraising events, helping users evaluate specific projects and trends in the overall industry.”

Protos has reached out to Leggio for comment.

Leggio is also a North Korean spy hunter

G8keep made the news in late August after it was revealed that it was attempting to weed out possible North Korean spies during its interview process with an ingenious test that asked candidates to say “Fuck North Korea.”

According to Leggio, North Korean engineers can be outed by asking them to say something negative about North Korea and Kim Jong Un. 

To demonstrate this, he shared an interaction with a potential recruit applying for a developer role. When asked to say the words “I hate Kim Jong Un, Fuck North Korea,” the potential recruit “immediately” deleted the chat. 

Update September 5, 17:46 UTC: Included a response from CertiK.

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