Ben (v2) priceBEN

The Solana blockchain has come under fire, with critics calling it a breeding ground for speculative assets. However, Helius Labs CEO Mert Mumtaz argues that the chain is being unfairly blamed for trends that exist across all networks. The Meme Coin Scourge Solana’s recent surge in activity has been largely fueled by meme coins, including U.S. President Donald Trump and his wife Melania’s offerings, Official Trump (TRUMP) and Melania Meme (MELANIA). However, following bad experiences with some of these tokens, where retail traders were liquidated following pumps and dumps triggered by insider trading, some critics have labeled Solana “the worst thing to happen” to the digital asset space. Just days ago, crypto trader Hayden Davis launched LIBRA, a coin whose apparent promotion by President Javier Milei of Argentina fired up its afterburners, pushing its market cap beyond $4 billion. However, Milei later pulled down his endorsement, causing the meme coin’s value to plunge by 90%, losing investors lots of money. On-chain data revealed that insiders reaped huge profits, with Davis admitting in an interview that he was sitting on more than $100 million from the LIBRA launch. The situation was made worse when some observers accused platforms like Jupiter and Meteora, which are built on Solana, of complicity in the LIBRA scheme. The allegations caused Meteora co-founder Ben Chow to step down, with an independent third-party firm contracted to investigate the claims. Mert Mumtaz Responds to Critics Such incidents have turned public sentiment against Solana, prompting Mumtaz to weigh in on the debate, accusing detractors of tarring the chain’s entire ecosystem over the actions of a few bad actors. “You framed thousands of honest builders for the actions of a few scumbags, wrote Mumtaz on X. “The criminals will be punished, and the builders will keep building,” he added. In another post, he highlighted the challenges of managing a decentralized network like Solana, where there are far more grifters than builders: “In every industry, value creators are outnumbered by value extractors.” The software developer also dismissed claims that Solana is solely a “meme coin casino,” highlighting various applications, including decentralized GPU rendering, confidential payments, tokenized real estate, as well as on-chain governance as some of the key innovations on the blockchain. “Interesingly, this does not interest the loudest people on twitter as much as coins,” he said, “but they do exist.” The criticism is not unique to Solana. During the ICO boom of 2017, Ethereum faced a similar backlash after it emerged that at least 80% of ICOs in that period were scams, with the biggest, BitConnect, milking $2.6 billion from investors. The post Helius Labs CEO Defends Solana Amid Criticism Over Meme Coin Frenzy appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy launched a meme coin called $GREED today from his official wallet. However, he sold his entire position an hour later, causing the token’s value to crash by more than 90%. A Social Experiment In a February 19 post on X, the founder criticized the meme coin space, stating: “The entire ecosystem is Greed and nothing else. Go dump on each other peasants but don’t complain to me if you lose money. You are all greedy. At least admit it.” He then launched $GREED presenting it as a social experiment and a reflection of the true nature of the sector. According to blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain, Portnoy issued the token and purchased 357.92 million units, representing 35.79% of the total supply. Its market capitalization quickly surged to $30 million. Despite initially claiming he would not sell anytime soon, the 47-year-old offloaded his entire position within an hour in a single transaction, causing $GREED’s value to plummet by 99% to below $3 million. Lookonchain reported that he profited approximately $258,000 from the meme coin. Shortly after, Portnoy launched another token, GREED2. He currently holds 268.25 million of them, making up 26.8% of the total supply. In a final twist, the media mogul returned to X, stating that he had only promised not to sell one coin, referring to the Solana meme token Stool Prisondente (JAILSTOOL). He emphasized that he was free to sell everything else and had warned people not to buy. Portnoy first revealed his purchase of 57.16 million JAILSTOOL tokens on February 9. Shortly after, he sold the entire stack, exchanging it for roughly 586 SOL. However, he quickly bought back even more, spending over 1,000 SOL to acquire just over 23 million coins. Following an initial spike and dip, JAILSTOOL’s market cap surged past $100 million as the entrepreneur fueled its viral appeal. The coin’s value more than doubled, reaching an all-time high of nearly $218 million. Currently, the meme cryptocurrency is trading around the $0.0158 level, a 19.1% drop in the last 24 hours. It has suffered a more marked loss over seven days, shaving a massive 77.3% off its value. Meme Token Controversy The social media personality’s move with GREED comes amid a raging scandal in the meme coin space, specifically surrounding the LIBRA token. The asset, promoted by Argentine President Javier Milei, saw its market cap quickly reach $4.4 billion before plummeting massively. Its collapse fueled reports of insider trading and market manipulation with some allegedly cashing out over $100 million. Pump.fun founder Alen Cohen criticized LIBRA’s launch, arguing that meme coin creation should be decentralized and free from developer or market maker control to ensure fairness. He warned that the situation exposed flaws in the crypto sector, highlighting how bad actors exploit investors. Meanwhile, Meteora co-founder Ben Chow has resigned amid allegations of financial misconduct linked to the situation. The post Barstool Founder Launches and Dumps GREED Meme Coin in Just 1 Hour appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Bybit CEO: Pi Network project is a fraud Ben Zhou, co-founder and CEO of global cryptocurrency exchange Bybit, outlined via X that he thinks that the Pi Network ( $PI ) is a fraud, and on that basis, Bybit will not list the PI token. Zhou referred to a warning regarding fraud…

Ben Chow, co-founder of DeFi and meme coin platform Meteora, resigned on Monday after being accused of financial misconduct and insider trading tied to the controversial LIBRA meme coin. This development came after growing concerns over his involvement in the project. Chow Denies Involvement in Controversy Meow, the pseudonymous co-founder of Jupiter, a decentralized exchange on Solana, as well as Meteora, announced Chow’s resignation on X. He expressed confidence in his partner’s character but cited his recent lack of judgment regarding their company’s core operations as the reason for his departure. “While I am 100% confident about Ben’s character, as a project lead he has also shown a lack of judgement and care about some of the core aspects of the project,” Meow wrote. “And this is unfortunately unacceptable. Ben understands this, and has chosen to resign,” he added. Meow also revealed plans to find new leadership for Meteora and to hire an independent firm, Fenwick & West, to conduct an investigation and issue a report regarding the situation. The LIBRA meme coin gained attention after Argentine President Javier Milei promoted it, causing its value to surge above $4. However, the price later dropped dramatically to under $0.5 after Milei deleted his post. Its decline caused rumors of a rug pull, with accusations of market manipulation emerging. Reports claimed that insiders had cashed out over $100 million while regular buyers suffered substantial losses. In a separate statement on X, Chow denied any personal involvement in the LIBRA project. He clarified that neither he nor the Meteora team had received any insider knowledge or tokens related to it. “Neither I nor the Meteora team compromised the LIBRA launch by leaking information, nor did we purchase, receive, or manage any tokens,” he said. Alleged Video Evidence Amidst the rumors, a video surfaced online featuring an alleged conversation between Chow and Dhirk, the founder of DefiTuna. In the video, Dhirk claims to have witnessed Hayden Davis, a key figure in the whole LIBRA debacle, and members of his company, Kelsier Ventures, engaging in insider trading during a trip to Barcelona. The Meteora co-founder is seen denying any involvement in misconduct, expressing surprise and concern. At one point, he also says he regrets recommending Davis to other meme initiatives like MELANIA. “I feel so sick because I gave him Melania,” Chow said. “I f****d up because I enabled the guy that should not have been enabled … I’m going to have to step down, I’m going to have to quit,” declared the distraught executive. The post Meteora Exec Resigns Amid Financial Misconduct Claims appeared first on CryptoPotato.

DefiTuna co-founder Moty Povolotski has alleged that Kelsier Ventures, Meteora, and M3M3 coordinated a series of meme coin launches on Solana to extract $200 million in profits at the expense of unsuspecting investors. In a series of tweets on Feb. 17, Moty revealed that Kelsier Ventures had invested $30,000 in DefiTuna last month, but upon discovering Kelsier’s activities, DefiTuna refunded the investment and severed all ties. Kelsier Ventures, led by CEO Hayden Davis, is a key entity in the Libra token launch. In a recent interview with Coffeezilla, Hayden admitted that the team sniped during the Libra token launch. “I have personally gone the extra mile by risking myself and everything we built over at DefiTuna to try and get key players to speak up and start naming the bad actors and weeding them out,” the DefiTuna founder stated. The founder disclosed the existence of “a massive spiderweb of influencers who are banking millions from the Meteora community enabled by the leadership team of Ben.” According to Moty, Ben, or Ben Chow, planned to resign after the Libra scandal. A video obtained by SolanaFloor and later quoted by Moty shows that he told Ben about Hayden’s alleged meme coin misconduct. Ben appeared to be surprised by the news, denied any involvement by himself or Meteora, and said he regretted connecting Hayden with other projects. Following Moty’s tweets and the footage, Meow, the pseudonymous co-founder of Jupiter DEX, announced that Ben resigned from his role at Meteora. Meow strongly denied any involvement of Jupiter or Meteora in insider trading, financial wrongdoing, or inappropriate token distribution. According to the evidence shared with SolanaFloor, Kelsier approached DefiTuna through a Lebanon-based employee to provide liquidity for M3M3, a platform allegedly owned by Chow. Projects launching on M3M3 were allegedly required to allocate a portion of the token supply to Kelsier’s group, as detailed by Moty. Screenshots indicate that $2.4 million was extracted from community members through the MATES and AIAI token launches, with both tokens dropping 95% since launch. In the Melania meme token case, Kelsier provided DefiTuna with 1% of the total supply, worth $100 million at peak, requesting an anonymous sale through Orca LP tokens as NFTs to avoid on-chain tracking. Hayden, however, told Coffeezilla that his team did not profit from the Melania token launch. When questioned about Kelsier’s total profits from M3M3, Moty stated: “Like if you take into account AIAI + MATES + ENRON + Bunch of other projects … + Melania + LIBRA…over 200M? And there are plenty more projects.”