GROK, a suspicious AI chatbot-inspired memecoin, has seen its worth plummet by greater than 50% after stories emerged that its developer was linked to a previous crypto rip-off.
The memecoin is called after Elon Musk’s Grok xAI chatbot service, which was launched earlier within the month. The brand for the token, in response to CoinMarketCap, appears questioningly like the brand new X brand. Nonetheless, that’s the place the similarity ends, because the token is totally unrelated to the Musk-led firm.
Final week, CryptoSlate reported that Musk mentioned none of his firms, together with xAI, Tesla, and social media platform X, would ever situation a cryptocurrency token.
ZachXBT reveals GROK developer’s shady previous.
On-chain sleuth ZachXBT revealed that GROK’s developer is a scammer who has reused the precise X/Twitter account of the venture for at the least one different rip-off. He mentioned:
“Not that folks on this area will care however @GROKERC20 $GROK was created by a scammer. Similar actual X/Twitter account has been reused for at the least one different rip-off.”
Screenshots shared by ZachXBT displayed the developer’s earlier issuance of an ANDY token, which not exists, and highlighted a number of modifications within the developer’s Telegram deal with.
After ZachXBT’s disclosure, the token skilled a considerable drop in worth amid a major enhance in its buying and selling volumes, in response to information from Coingecko.
For context, crypto analyst Lookonchain reported that an handle bought 27.32 million GROK for 212 ETH two hours earlier than ZachXBT made his reveal. Shortly afterward, the identical handle purchased again 16.3 million GROK at a decreased value of 80 ETH, valued at $164,000.
The venture has since tried to regain public belief, with the developer burning 180 million tokens price greater than $2 million. “$GROK will proceed ahead as a 100% community-owned venture. No tokens are held within the deployer pockets anymore,” in response to a publish on its official X deal with.
In the meantime, this incident highlights the ways of malicious actors who goal compelling narratives to draw consideration throughout the crypto neighborhood. Crypto merchants ought to prioritize thorough analysis right into a venture earlier than investing.
