In a now-deleted post on its China-focused X account, the team announced the gesture was intended to “bring a bit of warmth to the community during this difficult period”. The meal sets were to be given to users who had suffered the largest losses from liquidations on the platform.

The offer, however, was swiftly disowned by the company’s founder, Armani Ferrante. He described the post from the locally managed Chinese account as “absurd”, “in extremely bad taste”, and clarified that it did not represent the official stance of Backpack. He emphasised that the incident was a “serious misstep” rather than a joke, TheStreet reports.

Despite the founder’s condemnation, the community manager for Mad Lads, an NFT collection associated with Backpack, appeared to lean into the absurdity, sharing a meme that joked about a potential partnership between the exchange and the fast-food giant.

The controversy arose after a steep market selloff triggered over $19 billion in liquidations across the cryptocurrency market, placing immense pressure on exchanges and traders alike.