Sam Bankman-Fried inspired meme coin crashed 90% after reaching 1 cent

As Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison, meme coin enthusiasts placed their bets on a knock-off FTX meme coin humorously named Sam Baseman Fraud.

On Thursday, Judge Lewis Kaplan sentenced the disgraced FTX founder to a total of 300 months in prison on several counts of fraud, money laundering, and attempted witness tampering.

One developer saw the news as the perfect opportunity to cash in on the buzz. 

An anonymous developer launched Sam Baseman Fraud just a few hours before Bankman-Fried’s sentencing on Thursday, March 28. The token was launched on the layer-2 network Base under the ticker ‘FTX.’ 

With the buzz surrounding Bankman-Fried’s sentencing, the token surged over 20,000% in just a few hours. However, it was evident that Sam Baseman Fraud was a pump-and-dump token, as traders quickly liquidated their profits after the token reached 1 cent, causing it to crash over 90%. 

The meme coin reached a market cap of $1.5 million on Thursday, but it’s left with less than $30,000 today. However, some traders still seem to be active, as GeckoTerminal shows a handful of buying activities in the past few hours.