Crypto Scam? Former NBA Player Accused Of $330K Rug Pull

Former NBA player Scottie Pippen launched the Game 5 Ball (BALL) project, a real-world asset (RWA) project to tokenize the “legendary 1991 Game 5 championship ball.” After the launch, Pippen and the project were accused of rugging over 100 Ether (ETH) and being involved in other crypto scams. Now, Game 5 Ball’s team claims an alleged attack is responsible for the incident.

Game 5 Championship Ball Immortalized On The Blockchain

Basketball legend Scottie Pippen recently announced the launch of his Game 5 Ball RWA project. The crypto project aims to bring the “iconic piece of sports history to the blockchain for the first time” and preserve the ball’s legacy, “which marked the start of the Bulls’ dynasty, and is driven by the community.”

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The announcement received mixed reactions, with some crypto investors sharing their excitement for the project. A community member supported the basketball player’s efforts to “tokenize iconic sports memorabilia” but asked Pippen to “do things the right way.”

Others praised the project’s goals and offered suggestions for a successful launch and continuous support from investors. Meanwhile, many community members considered that the project would be another celebrity scam. Some X users questioned the player’s integrity and called Game 5 Ball a “clear cash grab.”

Despite the reception, the Game 5 Ball’s token, BALL, was launched on August 1. The project was surrounded by controversy after its price plummeted nearly 96% quickly after launching.

BALL's performance 16 hours after launching. Source: DEX Screener

Online reports revealed that the drop was due to the team withdrawing 103 ETH, worth around $330,000, from the project’s wallet. The reports also claimed that “the team had launched 1 Hour before launch and sniped the tokens.”

Crypto investors quickly shared the news and warned others about the alleged rug pull, seemingly resulting in the team “trying to rebuy after so much negativity in the TG.” Game 5 Ball’s developers claimed to have “F*ed up” and that investors are in “the wild, wild west” during a live on the project’s Telegram group chat.

BALL’s Team Linked To Other Crypto Scams

Following the accusations, crypto sleuth ZachXBT unveiled that the deployer wallet for BALL had suspicious ties to an abandoned NFT project called “Lil’ Hippo” and someone called “Mr. Moe.”

Crypto sleuth shares Game 5 Ball team's links to alleged previous scams. Source: ZachXBT on X

Additionally, Zach shared that the former NBA player was linked to an NFT scam from 2022. According to the reports, Pippen previously launched an NFT collection on OpenSea that offered the chance for 33 holders to win a pair of physical sneakers. However, the project was “abandoned” before the shoes were shipped.

However, Mr. Moe replied to the blockchain detective and claimed that Game 5 Ball had a “hiccup on the launch” but that the team was working on resolving the issues while still “fighting a lot of scammers.” He also clarified that Game 5 Ball was not a “celebrity” project but an RWA project for sports alongside Pippen.

The team addressed the issues, affirming that “they” tried to sabotage the project with “Sniper Bots, Telegram Impersonation attacks, Phishing attacks.” They also explained that they pulled liquidity from the project’s wallet to prevent losses and are “slowly adding back from the Dev Wallet to stabilize.”

Ultimately, the response was not well received by the community, which seems sceptical of the project’s transparency and its claim to be “No rug… only BALL.”

ETH is trading at $3,150 in the three-day chart. Source: ETHUSDT on TradingView

Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com