SushiSwap emerged from one of crypto’s most dramatic episodes: the “vampire attack” that drained $1 billion from Uniswap. Its turbulent history offers lessons about DeFi governance, forks, and community building.
The Vampire Attack
In August 2020, anonymous developer “Chef Nomi” launched SushiSwap by:
- Forking Uniswap’s code (open source)
- Adding SUSHI token rewards for Uniswap LPs
- Migrating liquidity when rewards were highest
- $1B+ moved from Uniswap to SushiSwap
The Drama
- Chef Nomi sold $14M of SUSHI (called a “rug pull”)
- Community outrage, price crashed
- Control transferred to Sam Bankman-Fried (FTX)
- Chef Nomi returned funds, apologized
SushiSwap Today
- Multi-chain DEX (15+ chains)
- Products: Swap, Kashi lending, Onsen farms
- Community-governed via SUSHI token
- Pioneered xSUSHI staking model
Key Takeaways
- Forks can be both predatory and innovative
- Token incentives can bootstrap liquidity rapidly
- Governance and trust matter in DeFi
- The UNI airdrop was Uniswap’s response