Base Official Shills Meme Coin, Plunges 90% in 5 Minutes—Who’s Getting Rekt?
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Base Official Shills Meme Coin, Plunges 90% in 5 Minutes—Who’s Getting Rekt?
Not Base is for everyone, but Risk is for everyone.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsWritten by: TechFlow
On-chain assets have recently become active again.
Following the emergence of a 100x memecoin RFC on Solana, Base chain is also showing signs of movement.
At around 3 AM today, Base’s official X account—followed by nearly 900,000 users—posted: "Base is for everyone," accompanied by an image displaying the slogan.
Adding fuel to the FOMO fire, the official Base account commented directly under the post with “Coined it,” linking to the meme coin titled “Base is for everyone” on the Zora platform.
Contract address:
0xD769d56f479E9E72a77bB1523e866A33098Feec5
Jesse, founder of Base, also reposted the tweet. This official endorsement quickly ignited market enthusiasm.
As a key component of the Coinbase ecosystem, every move by Base draws significant attention. The official account's backing is seen by many degens as a “safety signal.” In a market currently lacking breakout memecoins, this provided greater confidence for users to jump in.
Pump in 1 Hour, Rug in 5 Minutes
Shortly after the post went live, DEXSCREENER data showed the price of the namesake memecoin steadily rise over one hour—from $0.0001 to $0.012, a staggering 120x increase. Market cap surged from tens of thousands to $20 million.
However, the rally didn’t last.
This officially endorsed memecoin delivered a classic performance: pump in one hour, rug in five minutes.
At around 4:30 AM, the market suddenly reversed. Within just five minutes, the token’s market cap plummeted from $14 million to $1.4 million—a 90% drop at its lowest point.
After the crash, community sentiment shifted rapidly from excitement to anger. Discussions spiked on X, with many users directing criticism toward Base’s official team. The slogan “Base is for everyone” was sarcastically reinterpreted as “open to everyone—including those who rug and pull.”
The damage to Base’s brand reputation was even more serious.
Some users accused Base of “destroying brand trust,” arguing that a coin directly endorsed by Base quickly rug-pulled, severely damaging public perception. Moreover, due to Coinbase’s regulated and publicly traded status, this incident generated highly negative public sentiment, leading to sharp criticism of Jesse Pollak and the Base leadership team.
Given that Base has long emphasized compliance, this negative event is also seen by the community as potentially inviting increased regulatory scrutiny.
Beyond the negativity, however, “Base is for everyone” did not fully rug.
After the crash, the token began a slow recovery starting around 5 AM. At the time of writing, its market cap had rebounded to around $8 million. Trading remained active during this phase, with a 24-hour trading volume reaching $27.1 million. The number of buyers rose from about 4,000 post-crash to 7,300, indicating continued speculative interest.
The rebound may be attributed to two factors: first, speculators believing the price had bottomed out and entering for a bounce; second, possible accumulation by large holders at low prices to stabilize or profit further.
Who Caused the Crash?
The five-minute collapse of the “Base is for everyone” token wasn’t without clues—on-chain data reveals key insights behind the plunge.
Analyst @dethective, after deep analysis, identified a mysterious address as the trigger for the crash.
Mysterious address:
0x099246ca997acf47ada682c9c60f9ed0954ad960
This address purchased $1.5 ETH (approximately $2,400) worth of tokens just one minute before Base’s official post (April 16, 21:13 UTC), then continuously sold at the peak price of $0.012.
Data shows this sale generated profits exceeding $200,000—an astonishing return.
On-chain records further confirm that part of the seller’s profits were transferred to an address named “bandemic.base.eth.”
We also checked this address via GMGN. Aside from its major win with “Base is for everyone,” this wallet frequently snipes other Base-based memecoins and is labeled as “smart money” by the platform.
Historical performance indicates typical gains ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars. This time, however, returns were exceptionally high.
But for most retail investors, after the drama unfolded, those who actively participated and chased momentum may once again face the classic dilemma: “The price is still there—but my position isn't.”
What can we learn from this incident?
First, abandon the notion of official infallibility. Official endorsement does not equal safety. Even memecoin projects involving official teams may involve insider activity, pumps, and dumps.
Second, during execution, monitor whale movements in real time to avoid becoming the bagholder. For example, tracking concentration among top holders (Top 10) and abnormal trading volumes can provide useful warnings.
On a deeper level, the root of controversy surrounding Base likely lies in strategic missteps.
Base attempted to attract users and boost ecosystem vitality through memecoins—an approach rooted in “culture-on-chain”—which in itself isn't flawed.
However, in execution, Base overlooked the community’s core demands for transparency and fairness.
Zora, a key partner in the Base ecosystem, may have played a significant role behind the scenes via its TGE (Token Generation Event) mechanism. While unproven, speculation about a “Base-Zora coordinated pump” persists. Base should disclose full details of its collaboration with Zora to dispel doubts.
By promoting the token without adequately disclosing risks or pre-communicating with the community, Base triggered a crisis of trust. Any later explanation citing “experimental marketing” now sounds hollow.
In the end, it’s less “Base is for everyone,” and more “Risk is for everyone.”
Remember the risk. Proceed with caution.
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