Saturday, September 7, 2024

5 crazy April Fools pranks that Crypto X almost fell for


From Vitalik Buterin touting “degen communism” to a white paper from the Solana CEO for a token designed to function via shortwave radio channels, listed here are a number of the most outlandish April Idiot’s Day gags that nearly tricked Crypto X this yr. 

BunkerCoin, a token transmitted via radio waves 

In an April 1 post to X, Solana CEO Anatoly Yakovenko introduced the launch of a brand new Solana-based token known as “BunkerCoin” which made mild of the oftentimes over-complicated structure of latest cryptocurrencies.

Yakovenko claimed the brand new BunkerCoin token operated on “shortwave radio channels” and leveraged a number of sophisticated applied sciences, together with ZkProofs, Groth16 proofs and a “Nakamoto-style longest chain rule.”

General, the publish was a jumble of crypto-related buzzwords designed to prod enjoyable at new tokens.

“In case you are into mainstream adoption, pivot to bunkers,” wrote Yakovenko — a not-so-subtle reference to an identical post from All In podcast co-host Jason Calcanis on June 9 final yr.

Supply: Anatoly Yakovenko

Degen communism, the one appropriate ideology: Vitalik Buterin

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin made a prank of his personal, writing a humorous weblog publish that declared “degen communism” — a light-hearted jab at memecoins — to be the one acceptable political philosophy for crypto.

Based on Buterin, degen communism is a political ideology that “brazenly embraces chaos, however tweaks key guidelines and incentives to create a background stress the place the implications of chaos are aligned with the widespread good.”

Supply: Vitalik Buterin

Whereas the publish overstates the significance of degeneracy and chaos, it comes again to an concept that Buterin talked about in a March 29 weblog post, the place he talked about the necessity to make memecoins extra of a optimistic pressure in monetary markets.

Bankless co-host turns right into a Solana maxi

In a extra light-hearted try at humor, Bankless co-host and well-known Ethereum maximalist David Hoffman made a tongue-in-cheek announcement that he can be leaving the Ethereum ecosystem and becoming a member of forces with Austin Federa and Yakovenko on the Solana Basis.

Hoffman jested that he would be a part of the Solana Basis because the “VP of Decentralization” — a refined reference to a typical criticism from Ethereum followers who typically declare that Solana is not as decentralized as ETH. 

Supply: David Hoffman

Hoffman, a identified Ethereum maximalist has lengthy traded blows with Solana builders and lovers alike — so a sudden swap comes throughout as deeply out of character for the Bankless co-host. 

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The actual April Fools? Pump and dumpers

One of many extra questionable April Fools Day pranks, not less than, in response to Crypto X, got here from an account related to an Ethereum-based crowdfunding protocol known as JuiceBox which claimed it had acquired monetary backing from crypto enterprise capital agency Paradigm.

In an April 1 publish to X, pseudonymous account Briliegh.eth — since made personal — wrote that JuiceBox has secured a $69 million fundraising cope with Paradigm, sending the protocol’s native token JBX surging greater than 45% to $0.0043, per CoinGecko data.

JBX pumped and dumped on the April Idiot’s Day jest. Supply: CoinGecko

It took an hour for Briliegh to disclose that the publish was an April Idiot’s Day joke and the token retraced 25% to $0.0034.

The publish — which was screenshotted and shared throughout X by a number of commentators — was met with backlash from customers who took difficulty with the humor.

“Ready an hour to inform the world it is an April Fools joke — CRIME,” stated one person. “Jail,” wrote one other.

The same state of affairs unfolded when “Sasha” the pseudonymous founding father of the decentralized tech stack Waves announced that the protocol can be integrating with AI and changing its “Waves” ticker with “AI.”

Supply: Sasha 

On the time of the announcement, the worth of Waves (WAVES) jumped 5% earlier than shortly retracing again to earlier ranges. A number of customers failed to seek out the humor within the jest and declared it to be extra akin to market manipulation.

“Is that this [a] joke? Market manipulating,” wrote one person in response to the publish.

Different notable mentions

BitMEX Analysis joked that Grayscale Bitcoin Belief’s (GBTC’s) outflows stood at $0. The publish was poking enjoyable on the earlier excessive volumes of outflows from GBTC over the previous few weeks.

Moreover, conventional markets stay closed as April 1 is a public vacation in the US.

Supply: BitMEX Research

The tomfoolery reached properly past the extra area of interest corners of crypto X, with Republican majority whip Tom Emmer utilizing the day to take intention at the US Securities and Trade Fee. 

In 4 separate posts to X, Emmer appeared to make a number of statements praising the SEC and its chair Gary Gensler earlier than ending his publish with “April Fools!”

Supply: Tom Emmer

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