Data Shows That Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda May Have Links to Bald Token Rugpull
Reports have surfaced suggesting that the rug-pulling of overhyped meme token Bald has connections with troubled ex-CEO of defunct exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). Bald token had witnessed an explosive increase of more than 10,000% before returning to its original value.
While BALD's short-lived rally and rug pull points to several players, on-chain investigators said they found links between SBF's Alameda Research and BALD's deployer wallet. But is Bankman-Fried truly connected? See details below.
Sam Bankman-Fried's Roll in The RugpullAndrew Thurman, a data editor at Blockworks, recently discovered that a wallet address with the same name had made around 400 transfers to blacklisted" USDT addresses and had certain ties to Alameda," according to Thurman.
Poking around the $BALD deployer's ETH address
Uses Binance deposit address 0x66634adea6ff8f4213d48e8fa5cdcef14b360b54
Another active wallet, 0x000f7f22bfc28d940d4b68e13213ab17cf107790 does too
That wallet has interacted with Andrew Keys and Alameda Research pic.twitter.com/7brwImMkCE
- Andrew T (@Blockanalia) July 31, 2023
Also, Hsaka, a prominent pseudonymous trader, suggested that the launch of Bald" and its big crash could have been timed to give SEC Chair Gensler more ammo to sue Coinbase, an old competitor of FTX.
>SBF spotted in NY
>One charge against him dropped few days later
>BALD launches couple days later
>Sucks in majority of onchain mindshare/liquidity
>BALD rugs
>Gary now has some ammo against Coinbase pic.twitter.com/nXLasTyG5P- Hsaka (@HsakaTrades) July 31, 2023
The recent rumor sparked reactions among the crypto community members. Some Twitter users reasoned that while evidence suggests an Alameda-related wallet interacted with BALD's deployer contract, it's unlikely that the infamous FTX founder is behind it.
That is because SBF's bail conditions only allow him to use a flip phone and access only a few news, sports, and educational sites. His parents have also signed an affidavit saying they'll install monitoring software so he can't access the internet through his home connection.
The Connection Between Alameda Research and Bald Deployer WalletMeanwhile, on-chain data analysis strongly points at the infamous FTX founder, contradicting the Twitter user's opinion. Wintermute's Head of Research, Dr. Igor Igamberdiev, has thoroughly analyzed BALD.
The analyst based his research on a comprehensive examination of the transaction activity of the token's deployer's address and its links to major cryptocurrency exchanges.
Igamberdiev concluded that the individual behind BALD is likely a member of the Alameda Research team, not necessarily Sam Bankman-Fried, known as SBF, the FTX executive currently under house arrest in his parent's home in California.
Igamberdiev believes that the former CEO of Alameda is behind BALD, though he does not have any concrete evidence to back this up.
The key to Igamberdiev's analysis was to look closely at the transaction activity of the BALD deployer's address and its links to major crypto exchanges. At first, he thought it was Coinbase since it was one of the biggest DeFi governance forum holders.
But on a closer look, the cbETH held by this address wasn't mined by Coinbase but bought on a third-party crypto exchange. But the address held massive funds and mostly interacted with major exchanges like Binance, FTX, and Coinbase.
For context, BALD recently hosted on Coinbase's newly launched BASE chain. BALD experienced a tremendous 290,000% gain within 24 hours of trading, recording huge success in the crypto community until a recent rug pull by its developers left the crypto community in shock.
The post Data Shows That Sam Bankman-Fried's Alameda May Have Links to Bald Token Rugpull appeared first on The Tech Report.