Bald Developer Sends $12 Million Back to Ethereum After Spectacular Mess
The developer has sent 2,100 Ethers to crypto exchange Kraken.
The meme coin fell 90% in August, but not before traders reaped huge profits.
On Sunday, the mysterious developer who created Bald (BALD), a token that has become one of the most popular in recent months, transferred about $12 million worth of Ether (ETH).
After Bald had a capitalization of $80 million, some actions resulted in a price drop of 90%.
Lookonchain, an analytics firm, cites data showing that the bald token provider returned 7,000 ether ($12.9 million) from the backbone network to Ethereum on Sunday. Bridging is the process of transferring tokens from one blockchain to another.
The operator then deposited 2,100 ethers worth $3.87 million at current prices with crypto exchange Kraken.
A Dune Analytics query shows that this transfer was the first time money was sent from the Base network, as opposed to the amount of money injected there.
Bald’s mysterious growth in early August occurred when Base, the blockchain created by cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, was not yet officially open to the public. Soon, the stock price rose 4,000,000% in days after a viral video of a trader turning $500 into hundreds of thousands was released.
Bald’s euphoria was overwhelming: an endless supply of liquidity, a growing trading community, new traders, and in some quarters hope that it would be the next Shiba Inu. However, this euphoria only lasted a few days. After the token operator withdrew millions of dollars in liquidity, prices for Bald fell by up to 90 percent. This caused the mood to quickly deteriorate.
The operator added $35 million worth of ether to a liquidity pool on Leetswap. This exchange is based on the Base network. It gave the impression that it was a well-funded endeavor.
The fees they could have earned by selling Ether to Bald tokens and sourcing them against them, or by sourcing Ether in exchange for Bald tokens at higher prices.
The developer seemed unfazed by the price drop. The tweet stated, “The tokens controlled by a deployer address are theirs, including the liquidity tokens.”
“If you decide to continue trading that token, you are likely to lose all your money (if not already happend). This is a memecoin. There is no roadmap. The base value of this token is $0. There is no BALD team,” they said at the time.
The tokens controlled by the deployer address, including liquidity tokens, are owned by the deployer who reserves the right to do whatever with them.
— Bald (@BaldBaseBald) August 1, 2023
Some investigators have linked Bald to Sam Bankman Fried’s Alameda Research based on wallet activity and connections to Alameda Projects. As of Monday, however, the identity of the wealthy operator remains a mystery.
UPDATE (14 Aug 11:00 UTC). Add bullet points.
