Remember when a Reddit group made headlines for single-handedly bringing down and up one of the largest gaming companies in the world: Gamestop
Well, this group of financiers and Wall Street gurus are back on the stage, making headlines as Wall Street Bets braces for its very own bank run.
Let’s start with the creation of their own crypto coin—the launch of WSB Coin (WSB), the self-proclaimed official meme coin of Wall Street Bets, has been mired in controversy.
Yes, the Plunge Started on Reddit
Investors were left concerned after a moderator of the popular trading subreddit reportedly sold a significant portion of the token, causing its value to plummet.
A well-known on-chain explorer then claimed that a team member with the moniker “zjz. eth” allegedly pulled the rug out from under investors, selling off WSB coins for 334 Ethereum tokens worth around $640,000.
However, the prime suspect has taken to Twitter to explain that the WSB coin was actually created to enrich another subreddit moderator, “WSBMod,” who, as he claims, had siphoned off the coin through large airdrops for his own benefit. “zjz. eth” has apologized for not realizing this earlier and urged developers to create a contract allowing those who held the token before the dump to claim ETH.
Just How Much Money Has Changed Hands?
PeckShield also stated that a large portion of the tokens was traded for 334 ETH, with another wallet trading it for a smaller amount. About $650,000 in ETH has been traded so far.
Even those who have been associated with the WallStreetBets community have spoken of the token before. This makes the alleged rug pull even more notable and will surely draw the ire of the crypto community and those in WallStreetBets.
For instance, WSBMod, a former moderator of the subreddit, has contacted the founder of the token, zjzWSB. The former tweeted that he would file a police and FBI report if the latter didn’t get in touch with him.
ZachXBT also tweeted about the development, saying that the founder had messaged him in November 2022. He also reached out to WSBMod for more information.
What is the Wall Street Bets Coin?
WSB Coin (WSB) deemed itself the “official coin” of the WallStreetBets community, using its imagery and identity to promote itself. It called itself a meme coin: “10% of the $WSB supply is reserved as a treasury for the r/wallstreetbets sub to do with as they please.”
The project even had its own lite paper, though the information was unsurprisingly sparse. There was little in the way of substantive technical details, instead focusing more on airdrops and token allocations.
WallStreetBets achieved fame for its role in boosting the price of the GameStop (GME) stock. The army of like-minded investors pushed GME’s stock to meteoric levels and has since only grown in size and amplitude.
What All Went Wrong with Wall Street Bets?
@WSBMod has warned @zjzWSB of legal action through a tweet saying:
“Hey @zjzWSB, if you don’t get in touch with me within 4 hours, I will file a police and FBI report. You are fully doxxed. I don’t understand why you would do this.”
However, @zjzWSB seemed adamant and, in return, replied, telling @WSBMod that he could still return the money.
On-chain sleuth ZachXBT in a tweet on May 4, revealed that zjzWSB dumped nearly 7 billion WSB tokens for 334 ETH ($635k). He reached out to seek clarification on another multisign signer for the 6.86 billion WSB transaction and found that zjzWSB created the transaction and mod OIP executed the sale. It is confirmed that zjzWSB and OIB are different persons.
Another day another meme coin rug, this time involving ZJZ.eth from @wsbcoinofficial, who suddenly dumped a large portion of the WSB team supply for $635k (334 ETH) In Nov 2022, he messaged me, “I guess we should have been greedy amoral bastards.”
