In a shocking turn of events, the cryptocurrency community has been left reeling after the rapid rise and devastating fall of a meme coin called BALD on Coinbase’s Base, an Ethereum Layer 2 platform. Available indications from Basescan suggest that this may have been a classic rug pull, leaving investors with huge losses.
A rug pull is a scam tactic commonly seen in the crypto industry, where a development team promotes a project to attract investments and liquidity and then suddenly removes all funds, leaving investors with worthless tokens. In the case of BALD, it appears that millions of dollars worth of liquidity were removed by the token’s deployer, leading to an instantaneous 85% drop in its value.
Over the weekend someone created a memecoin called Bald on BASE (Coinbase’s ETH L2) that reached a $85mm mkt cap in 48 hours
Just got rug pulled and dropped 85% almost instantly pic.twitter.com/5cAs4aAbuZ
— Will Clemente (@WClementeIII) July 31, 2023
The rise of BALD was nothing short of meteoric. Within just 48 hours, the coin’s market cap soared to an astonishing $85 million, representing a staggering 40,000% growth. This unprecedented surge in value likely attracted a multitude of investors seeking to ride the wave of success.
However, as quickly as BALD skyrocketed, it came crashing back down to earth. The coin’s value plummeted to $0, erasing all the gains made during its short-lived hype. CoinMarketCap, a popular crypto ranking platform, swiftly removed all data related to BALD, further fueling suspicions that the project was a rug pull.
Prominent crypto analyst Will Clemente drew attention to the situation in a tweet, confirming that BALD had indeed experienced an 85% drop immediately after its impressive market cap surge. Such sudden and dramatic price movements are often telltale signs of rug pulls, as unwary investors are left counting their losses.
In the days leading up to the rug pull, there were whispers and stories circulating within the crypto community about traders making incredible profits from BALD. Some claimed to have gained millions of dollars by investing only a small amount, showcasing the power of influencer-driven “calls.” These tweets from influential individuals, also known as calls, can artificially inflate token prices, enabling the influencers to sell at higher prices and leave followers holding devalued assets.
Moreover, prior to the rug pull, Lookonchain reported that the deployer of BALD added an enormous amount of liquidity to LeetSwap, totaling 727 million BALD and 6,471 ETH worth $12.15 million. This sudden influx of liquidity might have been an attempt to give the appearance of a legitimate project, but it ultimately ended up raising suspicions.
The crypto space has long been plagued by rug pulls and fraudulent schemes, making it imperative for investors to exercise caution and conduct thorough due diligence before committing funds to any project, especially those that gain traction rapidly.
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