Overview
- Prosecutors from the Seoul Southern District on May 27, 2026 indicted five people in the CATFI case, detaining two suspects and charging two others with helping the alleged ringleader evade arrest.
- Investigators say the Solana token launched on the Pump.fun launchpad in early 2025 surged about 1,001-fold in roughly 26 hours, drawing about 6,000 buyers and leaving 256 investors with reported losses of roughly 900 million won.
- Authorities allege the group used a promoted influencer identity, multi-wallet distribution and circular or wash trades to fake demand before withdrawing liquidity and extracting about 400 million won in proceeds.
- News of the charges prompted a brief community attempt to 'unrug' CATFI that lifted the dormant token by several thousand percent intraday but left it far below its February 2025 peak.
- The prosecution is the first major test of applying the Virtual Asset User Protection Act to decentralized-exchange activity and could push tighter rules on launchpads, influencer disclosure and on-chain forensics while signaling greater legal risk for DEX-based fraud.