Crypto Twitter Connects Sam Bankman-Fried to the BALD Liquidity Rug Pull

Jimmy Aki
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A new conspiracy is making rounds on crypto Twitter, suggesting that Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of FTX, is covertly controlling a new meme coin called BALD on Base.

Blockchain enthusiasts closely monitoring the situation suspect that Bankman-Fried might have initially withdrawn liquidity from the BALD meme coin, only to reintroduce it later.

Blockchain Watchers Connect the Dots

The latest buzz on crypto Twitter is a compelling and controversial theory suggesting that Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) is secretly behind developing a new cryptocurrency called BALD.

The BALD meme coin, named humorously after Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, was launched on July 30th, 2023, and saw an astounding 289,000% surge in value within the first 24 hours of trading.

However, on July 31st, 2023, things took a sharp turn when the anonymous developer removed a substantial amount of ETH liquidity, causing the price of BALD to plummet by more than 85%.

In the aftermath, investors accused the developer of executing a rug pull, but the developer vehemently denied these allegations.

Taking to social media, they asserted that they had not sold any tokens since the coin’s launch. Instead, they clarified their actions as limited to adding/removing two-sided liquidity and purchasing.

Subsequently, a coin collector countered the developer’s statement, asserting that adding two-sided liquidity amounts to selling tokens.

The BALD developer agreed with this viewpoint, responding, “You are correct.”

Amid these issues, blockchain investigators probed the developer’s on-chain activities, leading to a connection between SBF and the Ethereum address behind the BALD token launch.

Hsaka, an anonymous renowned trader, speculated that the BALD token’s launch and crash were deliberately timed to aid SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s efforts to prosecute Coinbase, FTX’s competitor.

Others noticed similarities in the phrases used by the BALD Twitter account and those in Sam Bankman-Fried’s Twitter posts, such as “quite well” and “nor.”

Furthermore, another anonymous commentator named “Hype” pointed out several eerie resemblances between the developer and SBF, particularly in their sentence structures in social media posts.

Adding to the speculation, Blockworks data editor Andrew Thurman discovered that the same wallet address had made around 400 transfers to blacklisted USDT addresses and had connections with Alameda, which was considered significant.

As per a Reddit investigation, the BALD developer wallet allegedly received deposits from FTX and Alameda for over two years. It currently holds a balance of 12,331 ETH, equivalent to approximately $22 million at the time of this writing.

In a further twist to the tale, a Twitter user highlighted that an address regularly made deposits into the BALD deployer’s Binance wallet.

This address seems to be among the wallets responsible for triggering the disastrous depegging of Terra USD in May of the previous year.

The Conspiracy Meets Opposing Views

On the other side of the debate, skeptics dismissed the theory as mere speculation without concrete evidence.

They argued that it is improbable for SBF to be associated with such a scheme because he currently faces strict internet usage restrictions as part of his bail conditions.

Crypto influencer Tiffany Fong, who has had multiple conversations with SBF since his arrest, strongly criticized the conspiracy theory.

She explained that SBF has been using a non-internet flip phone since his bail conditions were updated in April.

In a subsequent post, she referred to crypto Twitter as “mentally ill.”

Supporting this theory, crypto investor Scott Melker tweeted, “I checked in for 5 minutes, and apparently, crypto Twitter believes that SBF rugged $BALD even though he has no internet access, computer, or phone and is under house arrest, at risk of a lengthy prison sentence.”

On the other hand, while many on crypto Twitter are reluctant to directly accuse Sam Bankman-Fried, some believe the wallet likely belongs to someone close to him.

Ultimately, only time will reveal the truth behind the BALD conspiracy theory. Until then, the crypto community will remain divided, with some steadfast in their beliefs and others calling for a more evidence-based approach.

About Jimmy Aki PRO INVESTOR

Based in the UK, Jimmy is an economic researcher with outstanding hands-on and heads-on experience in Macroeconomic finance analysis, forecasting and planning. He has honed his skills having worked cross-continental as a finance analyst, which gives him inter-cultural experience. He currently has a strong passion for regulation and macroeconomic trends as it allows him peek under the global bonnet to see how the world works.