An astonishing claim has been made about the memecoin BALD, which experienced an unbelievable increase of 4 million percent and then plummeted dramatically due to a rug pull. Chain-based data analysts have discovered significant connections between Alameda Research and the distributor wallet of BALD.
Sam Bankman-Fried Could Be Behind the Collapse of BALD
Following its record-breaking surge, the memecoin BALD, which quickly lost its value due to the rug pull, has been the subject of a shocking claim. It has been alleged that Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of FTX, is behind the scam in the memecoin.
According to on-chain data, transactions were carried out between the distributor contract of BALD, labeled as belonging to Alameda Research, a trading firm founded and controlled by Bankman-Fried, and Nansen. The data presented has been confirmed by several leading on-chain analysts on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, X.
Igor Igamberdiev, the research director at Wintermute, stated that the wallet address starting with 0xccFa05 is linked to Alameda Research and proved that the owner of the wallet address is a knowledgeable DeFi user with strong technical skills. It can be seen that the wallet address made transactions in the early versions of dYdX and Oasis and voted on the initial development proposals offered for SushiSwap. Additionally, it is evident that the wallet address conducted significant transactions among cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance, FTX, and Coinbase at that time, as well as being an active DeFi user by raising millions of dollars in leading DeFi projects such as Yearn Finance and Cream.
Although Igamberdiev stated that the actions of the wallet address clearly indicate that it belongs to someone from Alameda Research, he also mentioned that it is unlikely to belong to Bankman-Fried due to his past and lack of interaction with other players, even though the wallet address actively engaged with BlockFi, Genesis, and others, including 3AC. Igamberdiev said the following:
Considering his past and lack of interaction with other players (even actively engaging with BlockFi, Genesis, etc.), it can be said that the owner of the wallet address is someone from Alameda Research. Now, the most critical question that needs to be answered and highlighted is whether it is SBF or Sam Trabucco?
BALD’s Remarkable Rise and Fall
Last weekend, BALD, which was released on Coinbase’s new Layer-2 Blockchain called Base, gained popularity as a memecoin and attracted $68 million worth of Ethereum (ETH) liquidity, resulting in a trading volume of over $200 million.
Investors rushed to buy BALD, which saw its market value skyrocket to $85 million in the late hours of July 30th. Some early investors saw their $500 investments surpass $1.4 million. However, on July 31st, liquidity providers for BALD unexpectedly started withdrawing millions of dollars’ worth of liquidity from the token’s trading pairs, resulting in a rug pull.
This situation left thousands of memecoin holders in a difficult situation and caused the price to drop by over 90% as investors fled the project.
