The 13th anniversary of Bitcoin Pizza Day, which commemorates the moment a computer programmer used 10,000 bitcoins to purchase two pizzas in 2010, has taken a negative turn. Meme coin issuers have reportedly made over $200,000 off pizza-related rug pulls in the past 24 hours. According to data from Dextool’s “live new pairs” section, there have been 14 pizza-related meme coins issued, out of which four have been confirmed as rug pulls. At least five others are suspected to be honey pots, a scam in which an asset can only be sold to the contract creator.
The craze started with Pizza Coin (PIZZA), a token that lasted just eight minutes before developers changed the rate of sell tax, rendering investors unable to sell their holdings. It resulted in 34 traders buying the token with a total loss of 0.9892 ETH ($1,800). Despite this loss, investors still flocked to tokens such as Bitcoin Pizza and Pizza Inu. They ended up with combined losses of over $12,000. EthPizza and Bpizza were next, with the latter soaring to more than $100,000 before becoming unsellable after the contract owner, who held the majority of the tokens, paused transfers and sales.
Developers can use several methods to “pull the rug” on projects, including adding a modifiable sell tax to the smart contract, giving the contract owner the ability to raise the tax to unsellable levels. Alternatively, a smart contract owner can wait for the price to rise before selling the token into freshly formed liquidity from unsuspecting investors.
Furthermore, these tokens have no fundamental value, and their skyrocketing popularity is fueled by the recent “meme coin mania” following Pepe’s rise to a $1 billion market cap. Investors seem to be hoping to catch the next hype-fueled token in a market that has unlimited downside risk.
The rash of pizza-related rug pulls has raised serious concerns within the cryptocurrency community. Cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance have already taken steps to stop listing meme coins, which they see as a potential risk to investors. This ongoing trend highlights the need for increased regulation and scrutiny in the cryptocurrency industry. As the market continues to evolve and attract more investors, it’s crucial to protect them from malicious actors seeking to exploit the hype and profit off unsuspecting traders.