NBA Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen has recently faced criticism over his Ethereum-based project, BALL. Launched on August 2, the project immediately drew negative attention from the crypto community. Users quickly added cautionary notes to Pippenβs announcement on social media, advising investors to avoid the real-world asset initiative.
Crypto analyst ZachXBT pointed out that the BALL deployer address resembled a wallet associated with at least two previous scams, known as rug pulls in the Web3 community. ZachXBT also highlighted that Pippen had launched a non-fungible token in 2022, which failed and was widely regarded as another rug pull.
Deployer address for BALL seems tied to the abandoned project and other dubious activities.
Another crypto observer presented data showing Pippen and the developer wallet offloading $330,000 worth of BALL tokens in a single transaction. In response, the six-time NBA champion stated that 103 Ether was withdrawn to “mitigate attacks” amid heavy scrutiny from the crypto community.
Nah, what the… bro dumped $330K straight from the dev wallet in one transaction.
Pippenβs explanation did little to alleviate concerns, as social media users provided data indicating that insiders controlled over 15% of BALLβs supply.
Despite the controversy and the failure of several celebrity-backed crypto projects, public figures continue to explore opportunities in Web3. Most of these launches have taken place on Solana. Recent reports indicate that around 30 celebrity memecoins debuted on Solana last month, with most projects failing and leaving many users frustrated.
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