Just one day after a series of activities on the highly anticipated Ethereum layer-2 network, scammers took advantage of the newly minted Bald token to target Coinbase’s latest product, Base. Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in America, introduced Base as a new ecosystem for crypto projects earlier this month.
Traders were eager to purchase new tokens running on the network through the decentralized exchange LeetSwap. However, it appears that one of the new tokens, Bald, which was released yesterday, turned out to be a rug pull. The token’s deployer removed $25.6 million in liquidity, leaving investors with significant losses.
Rug pulls are unfortunately common in the crypto world, particularly in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space. They occur when a developer launches a new token, creating the impression of a legitimate project, only to later remove the liquidity and disappear.
Bald, a meme coin mocking Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong’s lack of hair, saw its value plummet by 92% today, according to CoinGecko data. The token’s price had skyrocketed by over 3,000% within a day after its launch. The Onchain Intrigue Telegram Channel tracked the wallet responsible for pulling liquidity, revealing that the wallet engaged in some suspicious actions.
The wallet added some liquidity by buying more Bald, sent out a bizarre tweet to potentially deceive more users into purchasing the token, and then proceeded to remove all liquidity once again. The wallet’s owner has denied accusations of selling tokens, claiming to have “added/removed 2 sided liquidity and bought,” but they later agreed with someone who pointed out that the token had indeed been sold.
Matt Aaron, project lead at Cielo, which operates Onchain Intrigue, expressed puzzlement over the situation. He noted that the wallet involved was held by a “sophisticated whale” holding significant amounts of cbETH, Coinbase’s Ethereum liquid staking token. The cbETH can be bought, sold, and exchanged for other assets, and it can also be redeemed for the Ethereum that was initially staked to mint it.
Interestingly, the same wallet reportedly went through KYC (know-your-customer) on a centralized exchange, making the situation even more complex and concerning.
