Coinbase’s Pudgy Penguin Avatar Change, ETF Hopes Ignite 60% PENGU Rally

Token debuts can be a controversial topic, often facing criticism for their poor execution which allows individuals to profit through front-running campaigns by supposedly having insider information about upcoming launches.

The most recent example is the “Base is for everyone” token introduced by Coinbase’s Ethereum Layer 2 solution Base. Three crypto wallets acquired tokens before the official announcement, resulting in significant profits, according to blockchain sleuth Lookonchain.

Base announced the token’s debut through Zora, an on-chain social network, at around 19:30 UTC on Wednesday. The token quickly reached a market capitalization of over $15 million, bringing substantial gains to at least three crypto addresses that purchased coins before the official announcement.

According to Lookonchain, three wallets bought a significant amount of “Base is for everyone” before Base’s announcement and made a profit of approximately $666K. One wallet address invested 1.5 ETH to purchase 256.39 million units of the token and sold it for 108 ETH after the official announcement, earning $168,000 in just over an hour. Another address made a profit of $266,000, and a third address earned $231,800.

Following the announcement of another coin for FarCon poster, the token’s market capitalization dropped to less than $2 million, resulting in losses for those who invested in the Base is for Everyone token. However, valuations have since recovered, with the market capitalization of Base is for everyone surpassing $18.

Base clarified that the Base is for everyone coin is not the official cryptocurrency of Base, and the layer 2 did not directly sell them. The legal disclaimer on Zora also confirmed that Base will never sell these tokens.

The rapid rise and fall of these smaller tokens can create a negative wealth effect, benefiting only a select few while the majority face losses. This can lead to a drain of liquidity from the broader digital assets market. This year’s debut of LIBRA and TRUMP tokens resulted in the destruction of millions in investor wealth, marking a significant price top in bitcoin and the broader crypto market.

Richard Kim, the founder of the crypto casino Zero Edge, has been arrested on allegations of using investors’ funds for gambling. The FBI complaint filed in the Southern District of New York accused Kim of deceiving investors into investing in Zero Edge, then misappropriating millions of dollars of their funds. It was reported that Kim lost almost all of the $7 million raised from investors, leading to charges of securities fraud and wire fraud.

Reports from last year by CoinDesk revealed that Kim’s gambling struggles caused substantial financial losses at Zero Edge. Kim admitted to CoinDesk that he had gambled away over $3.67 million of investors’ funds through risky leveraged crypto trades. He confessed that it all started with an $80,000 phishing scam, which triggered a chain of high-risk trading activities to recover the lost money.

Despite losing a significant portion of the raised funds, Kim eventually reported himself to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. However, the FBI complaint stated that Kim’s accounts of where the funds went were misleading, failing to disclose that some were transferred to Shuffle.com, a gambling website.

Kim’s fall from grace is evident, considering his previous roles at Galaxy, JPMorgan, and Goldman Sachs. Investors, including Galaxy, suffered losses due to Kim’s actions at Zero Edge. Galaxy’s head of communications confirmed their minimal investment in Zero Edge and their immediate reporting of Kim’s activities to the authorities.

Zero Edge was intended to be a revolutionary crypto casino that aimed to provide transparency and fairness to gamblers. Although the platform never launched, Kim’s past struggles with gambling addiction fueled his motivation to create a gambling platform that eliminated the house’s unfair advantage.

As the investigation into Kim continues, his arrest serves as a cautionary tale about the risks of misusing investors’ funds in the crypto industry.

Bitcoin (BTC) is currently trading above $97,000 in the Asian markets as there is a sense of relief following reports that the U.S. and China are working towards a trade deal. However, there is skepticism in the market regarding the likelihood of a deal being reached this month.

According to China state media, the U.S. has initiated discussions with China on the issue of tariffs. Meanwhile, Dogecoin (DOGE) saw the highest gains among major cryptocurrencies with a 4% increase in the past 24 hours. Other cryptocurrencies such as Cardano’s ADA, XRP, Ether (ETH), and BNB also experienced gains between 1-3%.

There was a notable decline in Movement’s MOVE token price, dropping by 21% as founder Rushi Manche was suspended following a token manipulation scandal revealed by a recent exposé.

On Polymarket, bettors are not optimistic about a trade deal being reached this month between the U.S. and China, giving it only a 20% chance of happening by June. The market is cautious due to the hawkish rhetoric coming from the White House.

Market observers believe that with the current positive trend in other crypto metrics, the possibility of Bitcoin reaching $100,000 is within reach. This optimism is reinforced by Strategy’s continued Bitcoin purchases and efforts towards further institutionalization.

Kava Labs reaching a milestone of 100K users for its decentralized AI platform has also had a positive impact on Artificial Intelligence (AI) tokens in the market, with a 3% increase. Users are recognizing the value of decentralized and transparent AI systems, moving away from centralized models controlled by a few corporations.