Ozzy Osbourne’s death on Tuesday has sparked a wave of scam tokens on Solana, as bad actors exploit the heavy metal icon’s legacy for quick cash grabs.
Seven millions tokens have been launched in pump.fun since its inception in 2024.
Coinbase’s Layer-2 (L2) Network, Base, has faced intense backlash over rug-pull allegations after it promoted an unofficial memecoin that crashed by over 90%, sparking a debate about the future of memecoins and on-chain content. Related Reading: Aptos (APT) To Continue Moving In ‘No Man’s Land’ – Can It Reclaim $5? The Rise And Fall Of Base’s Unofficial Memecoin On Wednesday, Base’s official X account posted an image with the text “Base is for everyone.” Moments later, they shared a link to the on-chain social protocol Zora and the caption “Coined it,” sparking a speculative frenzy among investors. The protocol allows users to make social media posts into tradable tokens, automatically minting them. After Base’s post was turned into a token, the crypto community quickly skyrocketed its market capitalization to $17 million. However, online reports showed that the memecoin collapsed by around 92% after the top holders, who owned 47% of the supply, sold the memecoin just over an hour after launching. Some community members noted that the token was “HORRIFICALLY sniped,” while on-chain data analytics platform Lookonchain highlighted that “3 wallets bought a large amount of ‘Base is for everyone’ before Base posted and sold them, making a profit of ~$666K.” As a result, the community criticized the network’s team for the memecoin, calling the incident a rug pull and asking them to “stop launching worthless tokens that will all inevitably go to 0. You are diluting your brand and the value of real base assets.” Zora data shows Base has earned around $81,000 from the memecoin, which has recovered from the initial sell-off with a peak market capitalization of $26 million before retracing to the $9 million-$10 million range. Base’s Public Experiment Base responded to the backlash, clarifying they will never sell their holdings, but they weren’t an official network token either. The team explained that they posted on Zora because they believe everyone should bring content on-chain and use the tools that make it possible. Memes. Moments. Culture. If we want the future to be onchain, we have to be willing to experiment in public. That’s what we’re doing. To be clear, Base will never sell these tokens, and these are not official network tokens for Base, Coinbase, or any other related product. The content we share is creative, and we’re going to keep bringing culture onchain. The public on-chain experimentation opened a debate about memecoin culture and on-chain content, with Base’s creator, Jesse Pollak, weighing in. In a series of X posts, Pollak explained that “not all coins are the same,” outlining the differences between these two types of tokens. Is On-Chain Content The Future For Creators? According to his posts, a contentcoin is one piece of content with singular value and no expectations. Additionally, multiple of them can be created by the same person, with “big ones” potentially turning into memes. On the contrary, a memecoin is an “aggregation of content,” with aggregated value and high expectations, where the creator “should” only create one. He also noted that big ones turn into projects. Related Reading: Is The Storm Over For Ethereum? Analyst Says ‘Face-Melting’ Rally Comes Next Pollack considers that “someone has to normalize putting all of our content onchain. and i’m not afraid for it to be us. why? because in the wake of the chaos, we’ll normalize the behavior and create a better future for creators.” Nonetheless, many users remain skeptical, with community members also criticizing Base’s post announcing investors can mint a deleted scene of the “Vitalik: An Ethereum Story” documentary, where the project’s founder, Vitalik Buterin, shows what’s in his backpack. “Through ‘the financialization of everything’ we come to learn that most things are worthless,” the user stated. Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com
The majority of scams involved gaining access to notable people's social media accounts through social engineering.
From failed memecoin stunts and attempted teenage rug pulls on Pump.fun to fake FBI tokens, 2024 didn’t disappoint.
Two 23-year-olds, Gabriel Hay and Gavin Mayo, allegedly abandoned projects after providing misleading information on project roadmaps.
A look at the dark side of rug pulls and the complex manipulation strategies pervading them.
A young crypto trader attempted to rug-pull a Solana-based memecoin on a live stream, but the crypto community joined to “teach him a lesson” by sending the token to an $80 million market cap. Related Reading: Bitcoin ‘Parabolic Phase Just Begun’, Is BTC Hitting $100,000 This Week? Solana-Based Memecoin Rug Pulled By 12-Year-Old As the market enters the rally’s second leg, Solana memecoins remain the cycle’s top narrative, and many traders continue to try to find and profit from the next big thing. However, scammers continue to attempt to take advantage of the memecoin frenzy. A Gen Z trader has made the headlights after trying to rug a Solana-based memecoin he created on a live stream. The 12-year-old trader has a crypto-dedicated X account and has previously shared his profits. On Monday, he posted a picture sharing he “just made $2k before school.” The next day, the young trader launched the Gen Z Quant (QUANT) token on the popular Solana-based launchpad, Pump.fun. While the token’s price rose, he expressed surprise before flipping the watchers. According to the on-chain analytics firm Lookonchain, the kid sold all his QUANT holdings, around 51 million tokens. The Gen Z trader got 128 Solana (SOL), worth $30,000, for the tokens, making a $29,600 profit in minutes. After the kid ended the live stream, the crypto community took over the Solana memecoin, sending the price toward the $0.08 mark as “revenge.” The token rose over 77,000% to a market capitalization of $82.3 million in the early hours of Wednesday before retracing toward the $50 million mark. As a result, the Gen Z trader’s holdings would have been worth around $4 million just a few hours after rug-pulling. Some crypto investors considered the takeover a “lesson for all of those who rug.” Meanwhile, others questioned the state of the community for it to be scammed by a child and argued that investors should not abandon the Solana memecoin “to prove a point.” The Rapid Fall Of QUANT Following the rug pull, the kid created another two memecoins, LUCY and SORRY, seemingly poking fun at the crypto community for his QUANT scheme. However, he sold these tokens for 103 SOL, worth $24,000 at the time of the report. The Gen Z trader’s scheme also resulted in several memecoins related to the event. However, some of the tokens were based on the kid and his family, who had their information doxxed online after the incident. Notably, a lucky trader managed to get a 2,141x return on his QUANT investment despite the rug pull. Lookonchain also reported on an investor who spent 2 SOL, valued at $462, to buy 18.89 million QUANT tokens. Related Reading: Aptos Following SUI’s Lead? Analyst Says APT’s ‘Explosive Breakout’ Targets $20 Three hours later, the crypto community had sent the token to its peak, driving his unrealized profits to nearly $1 million. The trader sold 3.71 million QUANT for 116 SOL, worth $27,000, and left 15.18 million QUANT, making an unrealized profit of $962,000 at the time of the report. Despite the takeover, the memecoin’s rally has significantly slowed throughout the day, falling 57% from its peak. As of this writing, the token trades at $0.035, with a market capitalization of $35.11 million. Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com
Memecoins have turned numerous cryptocurrency investors into millionaires despite their intrinsic lack of utility.
While the U.S. election has directed investor focus to bitcoin and Polymarket, the murky memecoin market is also beginning to heat up. Thousands of election-themed tokens have been created over the past 24 hours.
Cardi B’s WAP memecoin launch stirs controversy as crypto investigators link the wallet address to past scams and rug pull projects.
The crypto ecosystem has seen a surge in memecoins and their popularity over the past year. Still, the craze has ushered in a wave of scams and rug pulls targeting unsuspecting investors. The latest victim of this trend is the Solana-based GRIMACE coin, which was the subject of a rug pull. GRIMACE Surges 400% After McDonald’s Instagram Hack The incident began when hackers accessed the official McDonald’s Instagram account and used the platform to promote the GRIMACE token. The hackers spread misinformation, falsely claiming that McDonald’s had issued the GRIMACE memecoin on the Solana blockchain. Related Reading: Here’s What’s Going On With The Shiba Inu Price This had the desired effect, as investors rapidly piled into the GRIMACE token, driving its market capitalization from a modest $500,000 to a substantial $25 million in 30 minutes. At its peak, the token’s price skyrocketed by nearly 400%, reaching $0.02500 from an initial value of just $0.0005110. However, the euphoria was short-lived. After the token’s rise, the anonymous developers behind GRIMACE executed a classic rug pull, abruptly abandoning the project and absconding with over $700,000 in investor funds. The hackers even posted a message on the McDonald’s Instagram bio, brazenly stating, “Thank you for the $700,000 in Solana.” Solana Price Analysis On the other hand, the Solana price has been relatively stable since Monday, trading within a newly formed range between $138 and $142 after recovering from the drop at the beginning of the month toward the $109 level, which was the lowest point since March this year. Over the past 24 hours, SOL has recorded almost no changes compared to Tuesday’s price, experiencing a slight 0.9% drop despite Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) surging nearly 3% and 2%, respectively. This lack of price movement suggests little demand for the fifth-largest cryptocurrency in the market over the past week, further evidenced by a 14% drop in trading volume to $2.2 million in the last 48 hours, according to CoinGecko data. Related Reading: Tron Rises 24% Amid New Developments – Will The Uptrend Continue? The consolidation in Solana’s price is also concerning for bullish investors, as the token has failed to overcome its key technical indicators. Currently trading at $142, SOL has not breached its 50-day and 200-day exponential moving averages (EMAs), which are positioned at $143 and $151, respectively. Overcoming these levels would be crucial for sustained price recovery and provide important support floors in the event of potential corrections. However, it is worth noting that after the broader cryptocurrency market crash on August 5, SOL found significant support at the $129 level, representing a critical near-term defense for Solana’s price action. Featured image from DALL-E, chart is from TradingView.com
According to a report from PeckShield, ETHTrustFund transferred its entire treasury funds to a new account and then attempted to launder the funds through mixer apps.
A new method used by fraudsters has emerged, catching Solana (SOL) holders off guard on the Pump.fun platform, leading to significant losses. Going by the pseudonym “Short Form King”, a crypto researcher sheds light on this new trend and exposes the tactics used by these fraudsters. Rising Threat To Solana Holders A recent social media post […]
Community members are currently trying to trace the Gemholic contract creator’s address, which is supposedly funded by Binance.
A new rug pull alert sounded on Tuesday after crypto detective ZachXBT unveiled on-chain details of an alleged hack suffered by an NFT project last month. The project’s CTO announced that a response was in the works but ultimately vanished as criticism grew. Related Reading: Trezor X Account Hacked: How Much Was Taken In The Fake Crypto Presale? Nuddies NFT, A Hack Or Rug Pull? On-chain sleuth ZachXBT revealed the alleged misuse of funds by the CTO of NFT project Nuddies NFT. In a now-deleted post, its CTO Kyle explained that the project was “derugged from its previous founder” and built differently from other NFT projects. A short investigation into how @kyledegods faked a hack and stole SOL from his project @NuddiesNFT before spending it on NFTs and lying to holders about how devastated he was about the incident. On March 3, 2024 Kyle made a post in his Discord server claiming his wallets had… pic.twitter.com/4ne6dtVyA5 — ZachXBT (@zachxbt) April 2, 2024 According to the crypto detective, Kyle faked a hack that seemingly stole the project’s funds. On March 3, the alleged culprit posted on the Nuddies NFT Discord server, informing us of the hack. The post affirmed that Kyle’s Mac was hacked despite “not clicking in any malicious link.” The CTO concluded that a “zombie process” was on his computer for an undetermined period. This “mini-program” gave control of the computer to “the hacker.” Through the TeamViewer app the attacker gained access to the project and Kyle’s wallets. The post further explained that 90 SOL, approximately $17,000 at today’s price, were taken from the Nuddies NFT creator wallet. Moreover, the hacker allegedly took control of Kyle’s Discord and stole 150 SOL, worth around $28,300, from his wallets. At the time, he claimed to be “mentally destroyed” by the loss of the project’s treasury money. SOL is trading at $188.43 in the 3-day chart. Source: SOLUSDT on Tradingview.com Nonetheless, the on-chain data compiled by ZachXBT tells a different story. Per the crypto detective’s post, the CTO allegedly lied to the holders and stole the 94 SOL, worth $12,000, when the incident occurred. The post reveals that the funds were transferred during that day from the Nuddies Royalty Wallet to an exchange deposit at 8:20 UTC. The on-chain investigator claims that a destination transaction was found using time analysis. The transaction to one of Kyle’s wallets accounted for 3.42 ETH, around $11,700, at 8:21 UTC. The ETH was seemingly used to buy two NFTs: DeGods 2921 and y00t 10991. The DeGod NFT was used as the CTO’s profile picture on X until yesterday. CTO Answers The Accusations, Then Vanishes The accusations didn’t go unnoticed by the suspect, who posted on his X account that he was “preparing the answer” with a wink face emoji. After changing his profile picture, Kyle answered some users’ questions about his credibility, to which he replied that his “conscience is clear.” Now-deleted post from Nuddies' CTO Kyle. Source: X In the early hours of Wednesday, Nuddies NFT account shared a now-deleted post informing that the creator wallet was “refilled with 12k USD.” In the post, Kyle reassured that his previous claims of intending to refill the wallet were authentic. The CTO also claimed he was “waiting for his $W airdrop” to fulfill his promise instead of selling his DeAsset. Additionally, he “stepped out” of the project after giving the access keys to two community members. Recovered excerpt from the deleted Nuddies NFT post. Source: X However, the story doesn’t end there. Kyle and Nuddies NFT’s account were deleted a couple of hours after the post. The Nuddies website seems not to be working, as reported by an X user. The project’s future is unsure as one of the community members to whom Kyle gave the access keys was unaware of the situation. Juiceddd, an NFT artist, is one of the two people in charge of the project. Related Reading: Arbitrum Beats Ethereum and Solana With 119% Surge In NFT Sales, NFT Resurgence On The Horizon? The artist explained that he was responsible for redrawing the entire Nuddies collection while adding “70+ new traits.” Moreover, Juiceddd stated that he “woke up this morning to being the owner of everything.” The artist is contemplating giving his perspective on the incident as he considers that it is generally the artist who “gets fucked” in these situations. Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com
OrdiZK, a project that set out to become a bridge between the Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana blockchains, appears to have pulled an exit scam, according to blockchain security firm CertiK.
Blast, in an X post, termed the project’s potential as “undeniable,” which may have created a sense of security among investors.
Even some of the industry’s “rug pull detectors” didn’t pick up on the sophisticated rug pull schemes, according to the blockchain security firm.