Case of the week

One real rug a week, with sources. Read the clues, mark the red flags and only then see what happened. XP for a sharp eye, no money and no trading.

Week 43, 19 Oct - 25 OctBase$BALD31 July 2023

BALD: a memecoin on a chain that was not open yet

July 2023. Base, Coinbase's chain, is open to builders only, and the trenches talk about one token: BALD. The price climbs faster than anyone can read the contract. You have the chart and five clues. Mark the red flags that were really there.

0%50%100%+289,000% in 14 hoursLaunch 29 JulATH $0.0938Peakabout -93% from ATH31 Jul, 12:13 UTC
BALD price, % of peak

The chart joins only the figures the sources give: a sketch, not a full price history. Cointelegraph FXStreet

  1. A chain for builders only

    Base launched for builders on 13 July. Its team asked ordinary users not to use it yet, because the bridge had no working interface. The public launch was planned for August.

    Cointelegraph

  2. Who funded the pool

    In the first day the deployer himself added over 6,700 ETH of liquidity to the pool (about $12.5M). Trading ran through one pool on LeetSwap.

    FXStreet

  3. Straight up

    The price rose 289,000% in the first 14 hours of trading. The market cap reached about $100M in two days.

    Cointelegraph

  4. A faceless creator

    Behind the token was an account called "Bald". Nobody knew the creator's real identity.

    Cointelegraph

  5. Words against the chain

    The creator wrote: "I didn't sell a single token at any point since deployment. Just added/removed 2 sided liquidity." On-chain data shows the deployer account removed 1,009.41 WETH from the pool at 12:13 UTC on 31 July.

    Cointelegraph

Contract address: 0x27D2DECb4bFC9C76F0309b8E88dec3a601Fe25a8

Your verdict

Case archive

A new case every Monday (UTC). Older cases earn XP too, once per case.

Rules

  • Every case is a documented incident from the rug log. Each clue, chart point and red flag in the solution has a source listed with the case. Red flags the sources leave open are not on the list at all.
  • XP once per case: 10 for the verdict and 10 per red flag spotted. Each wrong one cancels 2 right ones, so marking everything earns the same as marking nothing.
  • XP counts towards your level and the season of the month you close the case. 3 closed cases unlock the Detective badge.
  • Without an account the verdict stays in this browser. On an account the server saves the first verdict, and it cannot be changed after you see the solution.
  • A case marked "suspected" in the rug log stays suspected here too. We accuse no one; we describe what the sources and on-chain data show.
  • This is learning, not a signal. There is no buying, no wallet and no cash prize here, and volume or real trades never count.