Inside Ben.eth’s Controversial Memecoin Empire
The current resurgence of memecoins has seemingly impressed a major shift throughout the NFT ecosystem. Why? As a result of the potential to revenue from buying and selling common tokens equivalent to $PEPE, $TURBO, and the like is simply too good to cross up, even for essentially the most staunch NFT merchants.
Whereas open editions and burn mechanics led the pack for the primary half of 2023, memecoins undoubtedly stole the present in April, inspiring each reward and controversy. But, even when buying and selling started to sluggish and costs waned within the wake of a Coinbase fiasco, one NFT influencer emerged as probably the largest breadwinner of the complete memecoin ecosystem to this point.
By launching two of his personal memecoins, a pseudonymous collector referred to as Ben.eth managed to generate practically $7 million in ETH, garnering each fanfare and widespread opposition within the course of. Right here’s the way it all went down.
First, there was $BEN
Though Ben.eth was already a considerably well-known collector within the house previous to memecoin season, his engagement seemingly began to choose up when he started tweeting in assist of the rising $PEPE group. After a spell of commenting on worth motion and the meteoric rise of the favored token, Ben.eth determined to attempt his hand at launching an identical providing.
Enter $BEN, a memecoin carrying the non-public branding of its creator. With $BEN, Ben.eth launched 420.69 trillion tokens into the wild, spurred on by a pre-sale that began on Might 4. Whereas just a few of the tweets referencing the presale have since been deleted, by some accounts, the presale raised round 60 ETH from just a few hundred wallets and closed solely a day afterward Might 5.
Subsequent got here the general public sale, which noticed holder numbers rise into the 1000’s. But, shortly thereafter, costs started to development downward, and it appeared that the coin would fizzle out earlier than it even had an opportunity to start. That’s till crypto content material creator BitBoy bought concerned with the challenge.
Recognized for his controversial previous and heavy-handed takes on crypto and NFTs, BitBoy, whose actual title is Ben Armstrong, discovered an affinity with $BEN. After first taking to Twitter to converse concerning the coin on Might 8, Armstrong brazenly introduced his involvement within the challenge solely a day later.
After only some days of Ben.eth and Armstrong being on the identical staff, the $BEN group was hit with a little bit of a curveball. On Might 11 it was introduced that Armstrong could be “taking it over 100%” and Ben.eth would turn out to be an advisor.
In the future later, Ben.eth unveiled his subsequent memecoin.
$PSYOP memecoin warfare
On Might 12, Ben.eth introduced that his new coin $PSYOP, could be launching by way of presale. The coin took its title from a common meme format that references, and at instances makes gentle of, the US’ historical past of psychological warfare.
The $PSYOP announcement was seemingly the place the controversy surrounding Ben.eth’s memecoin choices actually got here to a head. As a result of whereas the $BEN scenario has impressed opposition largely because of its Bitboy affiliation, $PSYOP was flagged by members of the group for its flimsy launch mechanics — or lack thereof.
In a since-deleted tweet, Ben.eth introduced that, to safe presale $PSYOP tokens, customers have been to ship ETH on to him at his ENS deal with. This meant that potential traders would wish to take Ben.eth for his phrase in the event that they have been to turn out to be part of the $PSYOP group, as no contract had been deployed on the time of the presale.
Shortly after his announcement, ETH started flooding into the Ben.eth pockets, and the influencer would finally safe round 3,800 ETH, simply wanting $7 million in only some days. The magnitude of the sale prompted many influential names within the NFT house to remark, with sentiment cut up between these praising the transfer and others going as far as to counsel it was unlawful.
Now that just a few days have handed because the $PSYOP presale started, and a contract nonetheless has but to be established and deployed on the time of writing, skepticism continues to develop because the preliminary hype surrounding the occasion appears to have leveled out. Nonetheless, Ben.eth appears unfazed. He continues to tweet memes concerning the coin, have interaction together with his group, and even share proof from the alleged coin’s developer so as to add clout to the challenge.
Certainly solely time will inform if $BEN and $PSYOP may show to be a champion of memecoins or a cautionary story with authorized implications. Nonetheless, the controversy hasn’t stopped mentions of the token from trending on Twitter, and Ben.eth continues to poke enjoyable at those that name for him to serve jail time because of his accrued fortune.
