Crypto Twitter has been engulfed by a tantalizing controversy that has the complete neighborhood buzzing – the explosive, albeit fleeting, rise and precipitous fall of a brand new memecoin named BALD, launched on Base, and the sudden identify tied to it – Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the founding father of FTX.
The BALD memecoin, humorously named after Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, launched on July 30 and took off on an unbelievable 290,000% acquire inside its first 24 hours. Nonetheless, it wasn’t lengthy earlier than the euphoria turned bitter because the nameless deployer of BALD withdrew 10,705 ETH ($20 million) and 224.6 million BALD from liquidity, inflicting the token’s worth to plummet by over 90%. Regardless of allegations of a ‘rug pull’, the deployer denied these accusations.
Is SBF The Puppet Grasp Of BALD?
This chain of occasions led to the emergence of a charming conspiracy concept tying Sam Bankman-Fried to the BALD coin. As first alleged by Twitter consumer @hype_eth, a wide range of elements, starting from the ETH circulate between FTX and BALD, related sentence construction in tweets, timing of on-chain actions, hyperlinks with Alameda and FTX, to a speculated connection to the UST depegger that impacted LUNA, all appear to attach the dots again to SBF.
In a tweet thread, the consumer identified: “Hundreds of ETH between FTX and Bald… Bald deployer tweets similar sentence construction as SBF… Onchain exercise occasions line up with courtroom dates/bail… We all know SBF was doing stuff via VPN not too long ago… Ties with Alameda in addition to FTX.”
To Summarize:
– Hundreds of ETH between FTX and Bald
– Bald deployer was first voter on all sushi proposals
– Bald deployer tweets similar sentence construction as SBF
– Bald deployer was greatest DYDX farmer
– Bald deployer DYDX posts sound like SBF(1/x) 👇
— hype (@hype_eth) July 31, 2023
Nonetheless, not everyone seems to be shopping for this concept. Tiffany Fong, a crypto influencer who has been involved with SBF since his arrest, debunks this conspiracy. Based on Fong, Sam Bankman-Fried’s present bail situations place extreme restrictions on his web utilization, making his involvement on this scheme extremely unlikely.
“Guys, SBF hasn’t had entry to a traditional cellphone or laptop computer since April 2023 when his bail situations modified. He’s mainly been utilizing a flip cellphone with out web connection & a laptop computer with restricted entry to whitelisted web sites (e.g. NYT, WSJ, Courtlistener, and so on). Even guests are actually wanded down by safety & forbidden from bringing in exterior digital units,” Fong tweeted.
One other angle to the narrative is usually recommended by outstanding dealer Hsaka, who theorized a state of affairs the place the launch and subsequent crash of BALD had been timed to supply SEC Chair Gary Gensler with proof in opposition to Coinbase, a former FTX rival. In a tweet, Hsaka outlined this concept: “SBF noticed in NY… BALD launches a pair days later… BALD rugs… Gary now has some ammo in opposition to Coinbase.”
This conspiracy has ignited a passionate debate within the crypto neighborhood, with speculations rife and theories afloat. The query of whether or not SBF, who’s at the moment underneath home arrest awaiting his October trial, is the puppet grasp behind the BALD memecoin, stays a contentious subject.
Remarkably, the drama unfolding on Crypto Twitter is a vivid reminder of the speculative and infrequently unpredictable nature of meme cash. However till concrete proof surfaces, the SBF-BALD connection stays simply that – a conspiracy.
At press time, the broader crypto market noticed one other push down. The overall market cap fell to $1.126 trillion.
Featured picture from Engadget, chart from TradingView.com
