There is a conspiracy theory circulating on Crypto Twitter that Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX, may be secretly behind a new memecoin on Base called BALD. The BALD memecoin, which draws its namesake from a humorous reference to Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, was launched on July 30 and witnessed an incredible 289,000% gain within the first 24 hours of trading. After the token’s anonymous developer removed thousands of ETH in liquidity, the price of BALD plummeted more than 85% — sparking allegations of a rug pull, which the developer has denied. Some blockchain sleuths have drawn a link between SBF and the Ethereum wallet address responsible for deploying the Bald token as it had received thousands of ETH in funding from wallets associated with FTX and Alameda Research. However, this is just a conspiracy theory and there is no concrete evidence to support these claims.
Sam Bankman-Fried is an American entrepreneur, investor, and alleged fraudster. He was the founder and CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX and associated trading firm Alameda Research. Both of these companies experienced a high-profile collapse resulting in chapter 11 bankruptcy in late 2022. Before FTX collapsed, Forbes 400 ranked Bankman-Fried as the 41st richest American, and The World’s Billionaires ranked him as the 60th richest person in the world. His net worth peaked at $26 billion. Amid the bankruptcy of FTX, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index calculated that his net worth had reached zero by November 11, 2022.
FTX Cryptocurrency Exchange and Sam Bankman-Fried’s Troubles
The collapse of FTX, a Bahamas-based cryptocurrency exchange, began in November 2022. The company’s token, FTT, experienced a liquidity crisis which served as the impetus for its bankruptcy. Prior to its collapse, FTX was the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume and had over one million users. The catalyst for the collapse was a Nov. 2 scoop by crypto news site CoinDesk that revealed that Alameda Research, the quantitative trading firm also run by Bankman-Fried, held a position valued at $5 billion in FTT2. This prompted concern across the cryptocurrency industry regarding Bankman-Fried’s companies’ undisclosed leverage and solvency.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, is facing multiple legal troubles. Authorities charged him with multiple conspiracy and fraud offenses, which encompass wire fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, conspiracy to defraud the Federal Elections Commission, violation of campaign finance laws, and other instances of fraud. He has pleaded not guilty to these charges. Federal prosecutors have urged a judge to revoke Sam Bankman-Fried’s bail to stop him from tampering with witnesses before his criminal fraud trial, saying there are likely no conditions that the cryptocurrency entrepreneur will abide by to satisfy their concerns. However, as of July 2023, he was under house arrest at his parents’ home in Palo Alto, California
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