Bald memecoin has potential ties with Alameda Research, Wintermute researcher finds

As the crypto community comes to terms with Bald memecoin's apparent "rug pull" – an act that caused Bald’s market value to plummet – on-chain analysts are examining the events leading up to this moment.

The Bald token attracted significant attention within the crypto sphere last week, amassing a market cap of $85 million at its peak. The abrupt liquidity withdrawal made the price nosedive, almost to zero, resembling the features of a rug pull —a deceptive strategy where key developers or holders siphon off liquidity, causing the token’s price to collapse. The token's developer acknowledged removing the liquidity on Twitter.

Igor Igamberdiev, head of research at Wintermute, highlighted a finding indicating that the Bald deployer – the smart contract address used to create the Bald memecoin on the Base network – was connected to Alameda Research, the former research and trading arm of the now-collapsed FTX Exchange.

Central to Igamberdiev’s findings is the identification of an older wallet (0x000f7f) linked to the deployer. This link is established by the fact that the Bald deployer address and 0x000f7f shared the same deposit account on FTX Exchange. Furthermore, Alameda had directly interacted with the latter wallet address going back to June 2021. 

On-chain trail confirming link between 0x000f7f and Alameda (Source: Etherscan)

Igamberdiev found that the 0x000f7f wallet exhibited considerable activity during 2019-20 on platforms including Oasis, 0x v2.1, dYdX v2, and Set Protocol. The nature of these interactions implies that the wallet’s owner had significant capital and technical acumen. 

While this does not prove that it was Alameda that deployed the Bald token, on-chain trails do show a strong connection between its developer and Alameda. 

Another wallet enters the scene

According to Igamberdiev, the aforementioned wallet was linked to another wallet address (0xF3ad7b) that exhibited on-chain behavior typical of FTX. The connection was determined based on its shared use of the same FTX deposit address as 0x000f7f.

This second wallet was recognized as a major trader on dYdX and played a role in the early SushiSwap proposals. The address also received a POAP NFT from the Yearn launch and allocated substantial amounts to farm tokens on platforms such as Compound, SushiSwap, Cream, and Stargate. These activities align with FTX’s typical DeFi operations, Igor speculated. Additionally, he suggested that the wallet’s primary engagement with offshore exchanges further hinted at an FTX connection.

Disclosure: Wintermute co-founder Evgeny Gaevoy sits on The Block’s board.