BALD Coin Plunges 94% as Developer Denies, Then Confirms, Rug Pull

Updated: 31 July 2023

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BALD, a new meme coin on Coinbase’s new Layer 2 blockchain Base, imploded after an earlier stratospheric rise amid allegations and denials of a rug pull.

After rising as much as four million percent on Sunday, the coin had plunged more than 94% by 14.39 EST as Bald’s developer tweeted that it had not sold a single token.

I didn't sell a single token at any point since deployment. Just added/removed 2 sided liquidity and bought

— Bald (@BaldBaseBald) July 31, 2023

But when challenged by another tweet that the comment actually indicated the developer had sold Bald tokens for a lot of Ether, the developer replied, ”Correct.”

Social media reports and blockchain data suggested the crash was triggered when the developer pulled Ether liquidity worth about $1.9 million from the market, Coin Telegraph reported.

BALD – The Rise and Fall

Despite its lack of any known purpose, creator or utility, Bald went into orbit over the weekend. On Sunday, BALD tokens surged in popularity, pushing its market capitalization to $50 million. The next day, it skyrocketed to $85 million, resulting in impressive returns for traders like @cheatcoiner, who claimed to have made over $1.4 million from a $500 investment.

Base, Coinbase’s blockchain, launched its testnet in January and opened to builders in July. But as Base is yet to be linked to the rest of the crypto ecosystem, investors on the network were unable to take profits until developers add a token bridge. That is scheduled for August 9.

Bald token was thought to refer to Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, who is bald.

pretty sure the BALD deployer is affiliated with coinbase somehow considering he had 49% of the cbETH supply pic.twitter.com/QivTYzkMui

— Kuro (@KuroXLB) July 30, 2023