Base Official 'Promotion' Meme Coin Plunges 90%: Mysterious Address Harvests $200,000 with Precision

Original Title: "Base Official Pump Meme Coin 5-Minute Flash Crash 90%, Who's Reaping the Benefits?"

Original Source: Deep Tide TechFlow

On-chain assets have once again become active.

With the emergence of the hundredfold Gold Dog RFC on Solana, the Base chain is also stirring.

At around 3 a.m. today, the Base official X account, with nearly 900,000 followers, posted a post: "Base is for everyone." The post included an image showcasing the eponymous slogan.

What caused even more FOMO was the Base official account's direct reply in the comment section saying "Coined it" and linking to the meme coin "Base is for everyone" on the Zora platform.

Contract Address: 0xD769d56f479E9E72a77bB1523e866A33098Feec5

Base founder Jesse also retweeted this post, and the "official pump" action quickly ignited market enthusiasm.

As a key part of the Coinbase ecosystem, every move by Base is closely watched. The endorsement by the official account is considered a "safety signal" by many Degens. In the current market, with few Gold Dogs, this has also given everyone more confidence to get on board.

Pump for 1 Hour, Rug Pull in 5 Minutes

After the post was made, DEXSCREENER data showed that the price of the similarly named Meme token gradually rose within an hour, soaring from $0.0001 to $0.012, a 120-fold increase. The market cap surged from tens of thousands of dollars to $20 million.

However, the good times didn't last.

This official, transparent Meme coin staged a classic pump for one hour, rug pull in 5 minutes scenario.

Around 4:30 a.m., the market suddenly reversed, and the token's market cap plummeted from $14 million to $1.4 million in just 5 minutes, with the price dropping by as much as 90%.

After the token's sharp decline, the community's sentiment quickly shifted from excitement to anger. Discussions on the X platform surged, with many users pointing fingers at the Base team, mocking their "Base is for everyone" slogan as being reinterpreted to "open to everyone, including Rug & Pull artists."

More significantly, there was damage to the Base team's reputation.

Some users directly accused the Base team of "ruining brand trust" by endorsing a coin that quickly Rugged, severely damaging the public image. Additionally, due to Coinbase's regulated public trading identity, the public developed a highly negative perception, leading to severe criticism of Jesse Pollak and the Base leadership.

As Base has always been on a compliant path, the community believed that such a negative event would attract more potential regulatory scrutiny.

Beyond the negative emotions, Base is for everyone did not completely Rug.

Following the sharp decline, around 5 a.m., the token price began a slow recovery. At the time of writing, the token's market cap had rebounded to around $8 million. Trading activity in this phase remained active, with a total trading volume of $27.1 million in the last 24 hours. The number of buyers increased from around 4000 post-crash to 7300, indicating that speculators were still entering the market.

The recovery could be attributed to two factors: speculators believing the price had bottomed out and re-entering to buy the dip, and some whales possibly buying back at lower levels to stabilize the price or further profit.

Whose Sell-Off Caused the Crash?

The rapid decline of the "Base is for everyone" token in 5 minutes was not without traces, as on-chain data revealed key clues behind the crash.

After in-depth analysis, analyst @dethective found that the trigger point for the crash resulted from an operation by a mysterious address.

Mysterious Address: 0x099246ca997acf47ada682c9c60f9ed0954ad960

This address purchased tokens worth 1.5 ETH (approximately $2400) just 1 minute before the Base team's announcement (April 16, 9:13 pm UTC) and then continued to sell at the price peak ($0.012).

The post indicates that this sell-off yielded profits of up to $200,000, with an astonishing profit margin.

Further on-chain transaction records confirmed that a portion of the seller's profits were transferred to an address named 'bandemic.base.eth'.

Subsequently, we also used GMGN to look into the profile of this address. Apart from the overwhelming success of 'Base is for everyone,' this address is also a frequent sniper of other meme coins on the Base platform, while being flagged by the platform as smart money.

Historical performance shows that this address's profit range usually falls within the range of hundreds to thousands of dollars. This time, it achieved extraordinary returns on Base is for everyone.

However, for most retail investors, after the drama subsides, if they actively participate and try to time the market, they may once again face the classic dilemma of 'the price is still there but my position isn't.'

What can we learn from this event?

Firstly, we should abandon the lofty official endorsement mindset. Official backing does not equate to safety, and meme coin projects involving official participation may also engage in insider trading and pump-and-dump schemes.

Secondly, when engaging in practical applications, monitor whale activities in real-time to avoid becoming a bagholder. For example, focusing on the token's concentration of holdings (Top 10 holder percentage) and abnormal trading volume can provide some insights.

On a deeper level, the controversy surrounding Base in this event may stem from a strategic execution mistake.

Base attempted to attract users through meme coin promotion to enhance ecosystem vitality. The idea of 'cultural on-chain' itself is not flawed.

However, in the execution process, Base overlooked the community's core demands for transparency and fairness.

As a key partner in the Base ecosystem, Zora's Token Generation Event (TGE) mechanism may have been a significant driver behind the event. While the community's speculation of a 'Base-Zora coordinated pump-and-dump' remains unconfirmed, Base should publicly disclose its collaboration details with Zora to dispel doubts.

Base did not fully disclose the risks when promoting the token and failed to communicate with the community beforehand, leading to a trust crisis. Subsequently, attempting to explain experimental promotion seems somewhat feeble.

Lastly, it's not 'Base is for everyone,' but 'Risk is for everyone.'

Remember the Risk, Tread Carefully.

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