Key Takeaways
- OracleBNB on BNB Chain faced a major rug pull today, according to PeckShield Alert.
- The team disappeared from social media and erased all its online traces after the fiasco.
- The saga coincides with broader discontent in the BNB Chain ecosystem as its major memecoins plunged over 90%.
A recent addition to the BNB Chain, OracleBNB, disappeared just after a few hours of its launch. This comes as blockchain security agency PeckShield Alert found that the team behind allegedly executed a rug-pull, absconded with the investors’ funds, and wiped all records of the project off the Internet.
What Exactly Happened In The OracleBNB Rug Pull Saga?
The incident unfolded rapidly on Friday. OracleBNB had earlier in the day announced its token, ORACLE, in a now-deleted X post. Moreover, it described itself as a prediction market based on blockchain where users could “trade beliefs, bet on real-world outcomes, and settle instantly on BNB Chain.”
The token quickly shot up almost as soon as the project was launched. EXTools.io data indicated that ORACLE shot nearly 1,280% reaching an intraday high of close to 0.003266, and then crashing several minutes later. A snapshot of the token at 3:41 a.m. ET shows that it had fallen more than 95%, with a price of around $0.0001459, provided by PeckShield Alert.
Soon after the collapse, all the official channels of OracleBNB disappeared. PeckShield verified the vanishing with an X alert that read: “#Rugpull OracleBNB on #BNBChain has been rugged. OracleBNB has already deleted its social platform.”
Furthermore, Binance Square reports stated that the Telegram group that had over 1400 members had been banned shortly after the trading activity came to a standstill in the project. This has seen investors failing to access any member of the OracleBNB team.
A Binance Square commentator, AB Kuai Dong, alleged that OracleBNB had previously asserted having collaborated with Four Meme, a popular memecoin launchpad on the BNB Chain. Nevertheless, Dong posted a message by the Four Meme team, which claimed that they had nothing to do with OracleBNB.
“This Twitter account suddenly became active on social media, claiming to be building a BNB Chain prediction platform,” Dong reported on Telegram. “It was originally said to be doing a product beta test, but in the afternoon it suddenly announced a collaboration with Four Meme and that it’s going to issue a token.”
Screenshots shared by Dong show messages warning followers to “be careful,” after the Four Meme team denied any association. He further stated that the Telegram group of OracleBNB had 1,431 members and was suspended, and that the account used to conduct the project was an aged and authoritative account re-purposed to launch a token-based quick launch. In his opinion, the project gave a false implication that it was “incubated by Binance,” and this attracted unsuspecting investors.
A number of victims have gone on to share loss narratives. A Ukrainian content creator asserted that he had lost more than $5,000 by purchasing the token as soon as they were launched. There was another investor who escaped the loss of almost $10000 when a transaction did not go through because of an error in the Binance wallet.
BNB Memecoin Ecosystem Suffers
The OracleBNB episode is the event that coincides with a larger crisis in the BNB Chain memecoin industry, where several currencies have lost up to 90% of their value within 24 hours. Cryptocurrencies such as PALU and $4, which had already registered triple and quadruple-digit returns, have since plunged.
According to blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain, a large BNB whale withdrew 5,090 BNB (approximately $6.65 million) from Binance right before the crash to buy different memecoins. This move raised questions around volatility and manipulation within the ecosystem.
Further, the abrupt exit of OracleBNB has thrown hundreds of small investors into limbo, as the BNB Chain ecosystem suffers from dangerous token moves.
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