In a swift and dramatic turn of events, the memecoin inspired by Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence project, “Grok,” witnessed a staggering 74% plunge in value following allegations that its social media account was recycled from a previous scam token. The sudden downfall unfolded after blockchain sleuth ZachXBT exposed the apparent recycling of social media accounts and websites associated with the GROK token from abandoned projects, notably the ANDY memecoin.
ZachXBT shared screenshots on Nov. 13, revealing the connections between various social media accounts tied to GROK and the previously defunct ANDY token. ANDY, having experienced a significant decline from its all-time high, raised suspicions about the legitimacy of GROK.
Within five hours of ZachXBT’s revelations, GROK’s value plummeted from an all-time high of $0.027 to as low as $0.007. Despite a partial recovery to $0.011, the damage was done, and the memecoin’s credibility was severely shaken, leaving investors reeling from the sudden downturn.
In response to the crisis, GROK’s development team took drastic measures to salvage the situation. ZachXBT pointed to an Etherscan transaction indicating that the team burned approximately $1.7 million worth of GROK tokens in an effort to reduce the supply and instill confidence in the community. The burn involved 90 million GROK tokens.
A subsequent post from the GROK token’s official account on Nov. 14 claimed that the entire supply from the deployer address, amounting to 180 million GROK (approximately $2 million at current prices), had been burned by the development team. This move was positioned as a strategic step to restore trust in the wake of the scam allegations.
GROK’s rollercoaster journey began on Nov. 5, the same day Elon Musk unveiled Grok AI, positioned as a competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The memecoin’s value skyrocketed by an astonishing 33,650% in the following week, reaching a peak price of $0.027 and boasting a market capitalization of nearly $200 million.
This incident serves as a cautionary tale for investors in the volatile world of memecoins, highlighting the susceptibility of such projects to rapid fluctuations driven by external factors and concerns regarding legitimacy. As the crypto community grapples with the aftermath of this episode, it underscores the importance of due diligence and vigilance in navigating the ever-evolving landscape of meme-inspired cryptocurrencies.