The innovative yet absurd Web3 realm still has many amusing or jaw-dropping stories. This year's cryptocurrency tales are both crazy and absurd; let's take a look.
2024 is about to conclude, and this year has been dramatic and groundbreaking for the cryptocurrency world.
From the launch of spot ETFs for Bitcoin and Ethereum in the U.S. to the shift in political figures' attitudes towards the cryptocurrency industry from skepticism to support, it seems to be an important milestone for cryptocurrencies moving towards the mainstream. But this article is not about those serious matters; the innovative yet absurd Web3 realm still has many amusing or jaw-dropping stories. This year's cryptocurrency tales are both crazy and absurd; let's take a look at what happened this year!
1. The FBI created a 'garbage trap coin' to catch scammers, ultimately successfully prosecuting 18 individuals.
2. During a live event to promote the meme coin [TruthOrDare(DARE)], meme coin developer Mikol asked a friend to douse him with isopropyl alcohol and set off fireworks at him, ultimately leading to third-degree burns on his face and body.
3. A 13-year-old boy launched a meme coin called [GenZQuant] on the live streaming platform Pump.fun and sold it off right after the price surged, which drew community dissatisfaction. Ultimately, due to users' retaliatory purchasing, the price skyrocketed by 77,000%.
4. Tron founder Justin Sun bought a banana taped to the wall for $6.24 million at a Sotheby’s auction in New York and ate it in front of everyone.
5. Schneider Electric was attacked by ransomware, but the criminal organization Hellcat demanded $125,000 in Monero or its equivalent in French baguettes as ransom, sparking community discussions.
Did the FBI create a 'garbage coin'?
The FBI established a shell cryptocurrency company NexFundAl this year and created a fake coin [NexFundAl(NEXF)], launching a phishing operation.
To catch a group of 'pump-and-dump' cryptocurrency companies and market makers, the FBI posed as scammers, claiming to need assistance in manipulating NEXF's trading volume to create the illusion of its popularity to lure investors.
This 'scam the scammers' operation ultimately led to at least 18 people being prosecuted. According to prosecutors, four market makers secretly provided wash trading services to cryptocurrency projects, artificially inflating trading volumes by buying and selling assets through controlled accounts, creating the illusion of high trading volume. Over $25 million in cryptocurrency was seized during this crackdown, and approximately 60 different cryptocurrency wash trading bots were blocked.
Self-igniting live broadcast for attention?
On May 22, a live event to promote the meme coin [TruthOrDare(DARE)] turned into a disaster. Meme coin developer Miko| asked a friend to douse him with isopropyl alcohol and set off fireworks at him in an attempt to attract public attention. However, the live broadcast quickly spiraled out of control, as Mikol caught fire, resulting in third-degree burns to multiple areas of his face and body. DEX Screener data shows that this did briefly attract traders' attention, causing DARE's market value to spike to $370,000 within hours, peaking at $450,000. But the good times didn't last, and the coin's value quickly plummeted to below $50,000.
Miko| announced after the incident that he would stop engaging in such dangerous activities and focus on self-improvement and religious beliefs. After the incident, only two team members kept in touch with the injured Mikol, "the others just took their money and left." Mikol stated:.
A 13-year-old boy's rug pull live stream, traders retaliate and gain a thousandfold return.
On November 20, the youngest rug pull (RugPu) incident in cryptocurrency history occurred: A 13-year-old boy issued a meme coin called [GenzQuant] on the live streaming platform Pump.fun, with a total supply of 1 billion coins. He then bought 51 million coins (about 5% of the total supply) for approximately $350. As the live stream continued, more viewers started buying, and the price of Genz Quant kept skyrocketing. Ultimately, when the tokens in the boy's hand reached nearly $30,000 in value, he sold all of them, causing the token price to plummet, and he excitedly gave the camera the finger, saying, "Oh my god! Thank you for your $20,000!"
However, this 'earn and run' behavior quickly sparked a strong backlash in the cryptocurrency community, even leading to a 'retaliatory buying' action that caused the price of GenZQuant to soar by 77,000%, reaching a total market value of $72 million. This means that if the boy had not sold his coins, the tokens he originally held would have appreciated by over $3 million in value. Interestingly, a bystander trader earned nearly a million dollars with a return of about 2,141 times, while the $20,000 earned by the boy seemed quite 'meager.'
The world's most expensive banana?
In November, Tron founder Justin Sun purchased a banana taped to a wall for $6.24 million (approximately NT$200 million) at a Sotheby’s auction in New York and ate it in front of everyone.
This is the work "Comedian" created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. [Comedian] (with commission totaled 624, priced at $800,000, Sun ultimately bid $5.2 million)
Justin Sun stated, "This is not just an artwork, but a cultural phenomenon that transcends art, memes, and the cryptocurrency community." The 'taste' of this expensive banana naturally sparked widespread discussion. After taking the first bite in front of everyone, Sun shared his thoughts, "Honestly, for a banana with such a backstory, the taste is certainly different from an ordinary banana."
Hacker: Only accepts French baguettes or Monero.
Schneider Electric was attacked by ransomware in November and threatened with the release of 40GB of sensitive data. However, the criminal organization Hellcat made a rather puzzling demand: to pay $125,000 in Monero or its equivalent in French baguettes as ransom.
Security researchers believe this strange 'baguette demand' is actually a marketing strategy aimed at attracting potential collaborators and victims' attention. Some experts also think that 'baguette' is just the hacker organization's odd sense of humor. Picus security researcher Hüseyin Can Yuceel stated that Hellcat may actually hope to receive Monero as ransom for privacy protection. However, in the end, Schneider Electric did not publicly respond to whether they paid the ransom, and the true motivation of this baguette-loving hacker organization will remain a mystery.