Meme Coin Mania Sends BALD Into Orbit

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Meme coin mania erupted on Coinbase’s new Layer 2 Blockchain, Base, as BALD token surged into the stratosphere.

At one point at the weekend Bald, seemingly named after bald Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, was up four million percent despite having no official website, known backer, or use.

As Base is yet to be linked to the rest of the crypto ecosystem, investors on the network are unable to take profits until developers introduce a token bridge. That’s not scheduled until August 9.

So what is a $BALD token and why did it go viral? Here are some answers to those key questions:

What is BALD Token?

Information about the BALD coin is currently scarce as it lacks an official website or a description on CoinMarketCap. However, it is a meme coin, whose name is believed to be a playful reference to Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong‘s bald head. Due to its limited availability of details, further information about the BALD coin remains elusive at this time, despite lots of speculation on social media site.

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

Despite the lack of any discernible purpose, creator or utility, $BALD went ballistic over the weekend giving investors more than four million percent returns in less than 48 hours of mint. At the time of writing, the token has an enormous amount of liquidity, currently at $32.7 million.

BALD Token Dextools Chart — Dextools Chart: BALD/USD

It is now one of the trending tokens on X, with some investors making millions in paper profits after placing very small initial investments.

That’s precisely what happened to a trader going by the name Cheatcoiner.eth on Twitter. Interestingly, this individual managed to discover the coin, although the circumstances surrounding the discovery remain unclear. They claim to have acquired 2% of the coin for $500 when the coin’s market cap was under $50k.

At the time of writing, the market cap stands at $55.7 million, meaning Cheatcoiner.eth is sitting on more than a million dollars in profit right now.

Just woke up to 1.5M bags lmao

I’m speechless…

I thought it would take longer, it’s just the beginning.

8figs next week?$BALD $BASE https://t.co/y3bAAjS4fv

— cheatcoiner.eth (@cheatcoiner) July 30, 2023

Some wallets tracked by Lookonchain, a blockchain analytics service, reveal that a small number of buyers invested as little as 0.5 ETH in $BALD and profited upwards of $1 million.

These 4 addresses spent 0.534 $ETH($1K) to buy 50M $BALD (50% of the total supply) within 4 mins of $BALD starting trading.

Then sold 37M $BALD for 554 $ETH($1.04M).

Earned $1M with $1K in 1 day! pic.twitter.com/gXIDRjbhic

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) July 30, 2023

Another meme coin with the ticker HAIRY has also gone on an incredible rally, surging well over 8,000% in four hours.

HAIRY Dextools chart — Dextools Chart: HAIRY/USD

At press time, HAIRY commands a $371, 570 fully-diluted market cap, with a 24-hour trading volume of $656.220.

BALD Concerns

Crypto players have raised concerns with $BALD associated with its chain – the BASE Chain. The BASE chain is a “secure, low-cost, developer-friendly Ethereum Layer 2 network’ built on Optimism” that was launched by the Coinbase crypto exchange on July 13.

Around $47 million has already been transferred to the Base chain, which is a one-way bridge at the moment. This means base users are unable to bridge their tokens off the network. Once ETH is deposited on the network, it cannot be transferred back to another usable chain like Ethereum until Base developers introduce a token bridge.

However, there’s good news as the bridge to return to the Ethereum mainnet is scheduled to open on August 9.

Over $46m bridged to BASE.

The bridge back to ETH mainnet will only open on the 9th of August, which means liquidity is trapped until then.

Probably a good time to go on holiday. pic.twitter.com/hVbXj1IKVB

— francesco (@francescoweb3) July 30, 2023

However, the largest whale for the $BALD token is said to have deployed purchases through $cbETH, the Coinbase variant of staked ETH. There are speculations that it could be an insider to Coinbase with some traders even speculating the $BALD deployer is Brian Armstrong himself.

$BALD to $100M Mcap?!

A new memecoin emerged on @coinbase's new chain, BASE, built on Optimism.

It has since done a 100X in just a few hours, being one of the few coins that can be aped on BASE chain.

However, here comes the interesting part!

The coin itself seems to have… pic.twitter.com/2zdMRZjdsS

— MTS (@matrixthesun) July 30, 2023

And that is not the only problem with the $BALD token. Given that it is built on a new chain, there is currently no way to bridge out any profits that are made on an investment. That is why a crypto investor and trader going by the name Lady of Crypto is warning investors not to rush to put their hard-earned money into this token only to lose it to “scammers and rug pullers.”