GROK meme-token holders criticise on-chain sleuth’s work

The GROK token price collapsed to zero after on-chain sleuth ZachXBT reported a link between the asset and a known scam. Not all users approved of the expert’s work.

Not that people in this space will care but @GROKERC20 $GROK was created by a scammer.

Same exact X/Twitter account has been reused for at least one other scam.

X/Twitter ID: 1690060301465714692 pic.twitter.com/iKu7zb6YeS

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) November 13, 2023

The token turned out to be one of hundreds launched on various networks following the announcement of the eponymous chatbot from Elon Musk’s company, xAI.

On November 13, GROK’s price peaked at around $0,027, with trading volumes exceeding $0,5 million. After the post by ZachXBT, the price collapsed to below $0,01. At the time of writing, the Ethereum token’s quotes had risen to $0,012, the asset’s circulating supply stood at $81,6 million, liquidity — $1,75 million.

Following the post, some GROK holders rushed to dump the asset. Arkham researchers noted at least one trader who dumped tokens worth over $500,000 for around $400,000 in ETH.

On-chain trader 0xBB0 just sold over half a million USD of GROK for around $400K in ETH — incurring almost 40% slippage.

That closes out a trade he made on-chain starting with only 2 ETH, after ZachXBT alleged that the coin was developed by a serial scammer. pic.twitter.com/upIuA7BOp8

— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) November 13, 2023

The GROK developers sought to reassure the community that the project is not a scam. They hosted an online event for users on X and burned all tokens on the deployment address worth $1,7 million.

For some users, these proofs were sufficient, and one even called GROK “a good deal”.

Some criticised ZachXBT, saying he is “playing with investors’ hard-earned money”.

«This is a public project, and you are WRECKING people», — wrote a user under the handle Psyho.

You do realize you are playing with people’s hard earned money?

This is a community project and you are WRECKING people

So much for being the “Good guy” of CT

— Psycho (@PsychosCalls) November 13, 2023

Other community members, with irony, “thanked” the on-chain expert for “saving them from scammers”, driving the token to zero before they did.

ZachXBT replied that his position was inherently disadvantageous. If he had not published the warning, questions would have arisen about him in the event of a possible fraud, he said.

If I make a post before devs or insiders dump their tokens then people say i
I am trying to harm them with FUD.

If I wait and sit on that info until after insiders or devs sell then people tag or DM me saying I should have done something.

Just cannot win.

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) November 13, 2023

Earlier, ZachXBT detected a hack of a crypto wallet worth about $27 million in the USDT stablecoin.