In the shifting sands of cryptocurrency, a newly introduced digital asset named “BALD token” on Coinbase’s Base network suffered a devastating collapse of 85%, following accusations of a potential liquidity extraction by its creator, a transaction equivalent to around $1.9 million or 1,034 Ether. This shocking event triggered a storm of discourse across various social media platforms.
Contrary to the circulating rumors, the creator behind the BALD token has fiercely defended their position. In the face of accusations, they asserted that their interaction with the market was limited to the addition and removal of two-sided liquidity, negating any claims of having sold their stake.
The underlying data sourced from the blockchain presents a different aspect of the story, indicating a deduction of 374 ETH – a sum close to $696,598 – from the liquidity pool.
The Base network by Coinbase, established as a platform for developers on July 13, still awaits an official launch. Its developing team has urged common users to refrain from using the network due to the absence of a user-friendly interface for its bridge. The scheduled date for its official release to the public is in August, promising an accompanying bridge UI.
Despite these cautions, the lure of potential early gains led several investors to procure assets on this yet-to-be-launched platform. These investors have deftly navigated their way around the network, utilizing development tools to transfer ETH from Ethereum to Base, notwithstanding the missing user interface.
A marked event unfolded on July 29, as a developer, choosing to remain anonymous under the alias “Bald,” declared the inception of the BALD token on the Base network with the specified address. The token witnessed an exponential surge of 289,000% in its initial 14 trading hours. However, this triumphant run was cut short on July 31, with news spreading on Twitter about the extraction of 1,034 ETH in liquidity from the token’s deployer account, resulting in a near-total crash of its price.
BALD token developers denied allegations
Denying allegations of market order sales in a social media post, the developer behind BALD maintained, “I didn’t sell a single token at any point since deployment. Just added/removed 2 sided liquidity and bought.” The ensuing debate on the interpretation of adding two-sided liquidity led to a concession by the developer who conceded that it could indeed be viewed as selling tokens.
Digging deeper into the blockchain data, it becomes apparent that the BALD token was introduced by a specific account. Starting from 1:59 p.m. UTC on July 31, another account began executing a series of “renounce ownership” and “remove liquidity” function calls to this deployer account, resulting in a total of six “renounce ownership” and 30 “remove liquidity” calls. The transactions showed no recorded value or logs, thereby adding a layer of uncertainty over whether any tokens or ETH had been transferred through these transactions.
At 2:53 p.m. UTC, a “remove liquidity” transaction was made by the deployer account, which withdrew 374.4649549721529 Wrapped Ether (WETH) tokens (worth around $696,598) and 50,050,877 BALD tokens.
Regrettably, memecoin ventures have led investors to substantial losses in recent times. As an example, on July 26, investors collectively lost over $2 million due to the launch of Pond0x. A flawed transfer function in this particular token enabled users to transfer other users’ tokens without their knowledge or consent.