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A potentially explosive audio recording of Skycoin CEO, Synth was released on Twitter yesterday, leading to calls for an investigation into the platform by the Wall Street regulator, the SEC. The recording, in which Synth can allegedly be heard admitting to insider dealing and price manipulation, came to public attention at the end of a two week sell-off that has seen the price of the Coin plummet by almost two-thirds.

The leak emerged just days after accusations were leveled at the Chinese Skycoin marketing team, who are alleged to have made off with 100,000 Skycoin.

In a bizarre twist, Synth has alleged that he and his family were held against their will by members of the Chinese marketing team, and robbed of 18.88 Bitcoins and 6466 Skycoin. Skycoin updated their blog with these allegations on Monday, making the best of a bad situation by crediting the advanced security of the Skynet wallets in preventing a larger haul for the alleged kidnappers. It is unclear as yet if blaming the Chinese team for actions that are being dubbed “pump and dump” by commentators, will have the desired effect of steadying the ship. Skynet followers have been intrigued by strange updates and public spats between members of the team over the past few months and are now desperately trying to decipher the deluge of information that has surfaced in recent days.

The sell-off of Skynet coins and the rapid depreciation in its value follows the platform’s listing on Binance on the 23rd of May, seen by some as evidence of market manipulation and insider dealing.