If the 25 year prison sentence announced today for disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried came as a shock to any, here’s a related development that will surely surprise no one: Degens churned up multiple meme coins to piggyback on the news, which in some cases surged over 30,000% in value before plummeting back to worthlessness.
On Ethereum scaling network Base, some intrepid crypto user created a meme coin called “Sam Baseman Fraud” around 6:00 am ET, hours before Bankman-Fried’s sentencing hearing was set to begin. By 1 pm, just after the hearing concluded, the token (FTX) had spiked nearly 35,000% to a price of just over one cent.
Minutes later, it collapsed. At writing, the token is worth less about 4/10ths of a penny, and continues to trend downwards—though since creation, it’s still up over 9,500%.
That volatility hasn’t stopped degens from aping in, however. Of course not. “Sam Baseman Fraud” has already seen over $3.4 million worth of trading volume today, according to DexScreener. It still retains a market capitalization of $400,000, and $80,000 worth of liquidity—though that amount has been decreasing in recent hours as the novelty apparently fades.
Meanwhile, on Solana, a near-identical, though marginally more creative token—“Som Bonkmon Fraud” (SBF)—lived through almost the exact same cycle, albeit with slightly different timing.
Created yesterday, the Solana SBF token spiked some 15,000% yesterday evening. That streak continued overnight into the minutes before Bankman-Fried’s sentencing hearing began. At that point, though, the coin started tanking—falling from just shy of a penny to under 9/100ths of a cent at writing. It is now down over 90% in the last 24 hours.
For some reason—perhaps the ongoing meme coin frenzy on Solana, perhaps the cheeky allusion to meme coin sensation BONK, or perhaps the Solana-SBF connection—”Som Bonkman Fraud” has seen a massive $24 million in trading volume over the last day. The token retains $146,000 in locked liquidity, and—at the moment—is posting a $675,000 market cap.
Today’s SBF tokens are hardly the first to capitalize on a major news event to spin up millions of dollars worth of capital out of nothing. Such tokens rarely result in happy endings for holders: They are routinely “rug-pulled” by their anonymous creators, who withdraw liquidity and leave investors holding the bag.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.
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Source: https://decrypt.co/223975/som-bonkmon-fraud-sbf-meme-coins-pump-300x-crash
