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After a mystery developer pulled all of the liquidity out of the BALD meme coin on Ethereum layer-2 network Base on Monday, some blockchain watchers say the wallets being used by the culprit point toward former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried—currently under house arrest and with limited access to the internet.
“[The] BALD dev is like 90% SBF or an Alameda person at this point,” Cinneamhain Ventures partner Adam Cochrane tweeted, noting that the same wallet address was also involved in the SushiSwap community years ago.
“The early votes on sushi governance are super sus,” Cochrane observed. “When [SushiSwap creator Chef] Nomi bailed and community stepped in there weren’t tons of us around and SBF was the one posting to snapshot votes.”
Bankman-Fried was credited with rescuing funds from Uniswap, moving them to SushiSwap in September 2020.
Did this man really just rug us AGAIN from the suburbs?
LMFAO pic.twitter.com/n2z8Fht20Y
— Wendy O (@CryptoWendyO) July 31, 2023
“I am 99% sure that it is either someone from Alameda, FTX, or SBF himself,” Cochrane later told Decrypt on Twitter, later posting publicly, "Apparently some former FTX folks think it's Sam as well."
Others pointed to the use of specific phrases used by the Bald Twitter account—like "quite well" and "nor"—that were similar to Bankman-Fried Twitter posts.
“Bald deployer DYDX posts sound like SBF,” pseudonymous investor Hype tweeted, adding that the on-chain activity lines up with Bankman-Fried’s court and bail dates.
- Bald deployer DYDX posts sound like SBF
- Onchain activity times line up with court dates/bail
- We know SBF was doing stuff through VPN recently(2/x) 👇
— hype (@hype_eth) July 31, 2023
Adding more fuel to the story, one Twitter user pointed out that an address that frequently made deposits into the BALD deployer's Binance wallet appears to be one of the wallets that triggered the catastrophic depeg of Terra USD back in May of last year.
Bankman-Fried has been under house arrest since being charged by the U.S. Department of Justice with eight counts of conspiracy and fraud in November after the collapse of FTX. Bankman-Fried’s legal team and the prosecution have had trouble keeping tabs on his internet activity across a variety of devices in the home.
Bankman-Fried is supposed to use a flip phone instead of a smart phone. In April, his legal team acknowledged being unable to install spyware on his parent's phones as agreed to in his bail conditions.
Last week, prosecutors—growing tired of Bankman-Fried’s antics, including allegedly tampering with government witnesses—sent a 12-page letter to presiding federal judge Lewis Kaplan requesting that Bankman-Fried’s $250 million bond be revoked.
While Crypto Twitter pointed the finger at Bankman-Fried, some did acknowledge that the accusation remained speculation.
“A lot of this is hard speculation, but too crazy to not think about it. Will be updating this thread live as I go through the on-chain,” Twitter user Midas wrote.
Guys, SBF hasn't had access to a normal phone or laptop since April 2023 when his bail conditions changed. He's basically been using a flip phone without internet connection & a laptop with restricted access to whitelisted websites (e.g. NYT, WSJ, Courtlistener, etc).
Note: He…
— Tiffany Fong (@TiffanyFong_) July 31, 2023
“I know everyone loves a conspiracy theory, but this $BALD rug one just looks false to me. I'll probably get shit for this, but 🤷🏻♀️,” Tiffany Fong tweeted.
The story is still unfolding as of this writing. After several hours of being hounded on social media, the BALD developer added 100 ETH back to the pool, prompting the meme coin value to more than quadruple from its very recently established lows.
Perhaps SBF isn't the BALD dev, but hear me out...
What if we throw SBF in jail for life just to make sure 🤷♂️
— Byzantine General (@ByzGeneral) July 31, 2023