Coinbase’s Layer 2 network, Base, is facing intense scrutiny after what appears to be a major pump and dump—one that it inadvertently helped fuel. The project’s official Twitter account publicly promoted a meme coin titled “Base is for everyone.”
This triggered a speculative surge, driving the token’s market cap to an estimated $15 to $20 million within hours of launch. The token quickly plummeted near zero in mutes.
Did Base Just Help Fuel a Pump and Dump?
Base’s tweet, which featured promotional imagery and direct links to the meme coin on Zora, created the perception of legitimacy.
Traders piled in, and price charts reflected an explosive rally—followed by an equally sharp collapse.
Within one 4-hour trading window, a green candle representing millions in inflow was immediately reversed by a red candle of equal size, marking a total loss of liquidity and confirming a textbook pump and dump.
The token’s value fell by more than 99%, and trading volumes on Uniswap surged past $13 million during the brief window of activity.
base just had a major rug pull, here’s what went down
what happened
→ official base twitter promoted memecoin “base is for everyone” → immediate speculative frenzy, token pumped from launch to ~$15-20m mc → liquidity pulled, token instantly collapsed to near-zero within… pic.twitter.com/rQzgCg59Z3
There is massive ongoing outrage against both Coinbase and Base. Crypto influencers have called the incident a failure of due diligence and communications strategy.
Accusations of incompetence and poor risk oversight are spreading fast on social media, while memes mocking the network’s “Base is for everyone” slogan are everywhere.
Base is yet to provide an official response to the incident.
Dragonchain’s DRGN rallied 115% today after the SEC dropped its 2022 lawsuit regarding securities violations. Walt Disney launched the project in 2014 and later converted it into an open-source blockchain.
The network combines private and public blockchain elements, allowing businesses to keep sensitive data private while leveraging public blockchains for verification. This design supports compliance with regulations like GDPR and HIPAA.
What is Dragonchain?
Dragonchain began as the “Disney Private Blockchain Platform,” developed by a team led by Joe Roets at Disney’s Seattle office. In 2016, Disney released the project as open-source software.
Following this, Roets and his team established the Dragonchain Foundation and Dragonchain Inc. to further develop and commercialize the platform. Since then, Disney has not been affiliated with the project.
The blockchain became extremely popular in 2016 because of its hybrid architecture and interoperability. Through its patented Interchain technology, Dragonchain enables integration with other blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well as legacy systems and APIs.
Dragonchain introduced disruptive blockchain innovation at a time when networks like Solana and Layer-2 didn’t exist. It demonstrated high transaction throughput, processing over 250 million transactions in 24 hours during a live demonstration in 2020.
Most notably, it was ahead of its time. The platform introduced quantum-resistant encryption methods to protect data against future quantum computing threats.
The SEC Lawsuit and $1 Billion Loss
The Walt Disney Corporation is not normally known for its Web3 endeavors, but it has shown interest in several sectors over the last few years.
When Disney controlled the project, it had no cryptoasset element, focusing on pure blockchain infrastructure. Shortly after its independence, however, the firm’s developers launched DRGN.
In October 2017, Dragonchain Inc. launched the DRGN token through an Initial Coin Offering (ICO), raising approximately $13.7 million. By January 2018, DRGN’s market cap surged to $1.3 billion.
In 2022, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Dragonchain, focusing on the ICO and alleging unregistered securities offerings. The DRGN token was central to the charges. This marked the beginning of a legally volatile period for the project.
Finally, today, on April 25, 2025, the SEC dropped the lawsuit as part of its wider efforts to reduce crypto enforcement.
The Seven Years’ Wandering finally draws to its close. We were never lost—only laying the ground. Tomorrow, we begin to raise what was always meant to stand.
The announcement sparked a rally in the DRGN market and renewed optimism within the project’s community. The token is up by 115% today and 180% since last week.
Over the last several weeks, Dragonchain’s social media presence has focused on both its blockchain utility and the SEC dismissal.
Dragonchain (DRGN) Price Chart in a Week. Source:
Although the crypto ecosystem has evolved significantly since the lawsuit began, Dragonchain continues to maintain its original commitment to enterprise use cases. It has resisted being labeled as a meme coin and instead emphasizes its enduring focus on practical blockchain applications.
Pi Network has recently witnessed a 12% price rally, briefly reaching $0.65 during intra-day trading, only to fall back down to $0.61. Despite this uptick, the altcoin has struggled to break free from consolidation, as weak investor sentiment continues to weigh heavily on its price.
A glimmer of hope comes from an ecosystem announcement scheduled for May 14, which could offer some positive news and potentially trigger a more substantial rally.
Pi Network Is Losing Investor Interest
Investor sentiment surrounding Pi Network has been weak for the past month, with little to no interest from the broader market. This lack of enthusiasm has hindered the altcoin’s ability to break free from consolidation and achieve a sustained price increase.
This investor apathy has created a significant challenge for Pi Network, as it lacks the backing needed to push its price higher. While the market has shown some bullish tendencies, especially following the US Federal Reserve’s decision to keep interest rates unchanged, Pi Network has struggled to translate this into sustained momentum.
The overall macro momentum of Pi Network shows mixed signals. On the one hand, the MACD (Moving Average Convergence Divergence) indicator barely exhibits bullishness, with the histogram showing small green bars. While this suggests slight positive momentum, it is not enough to trigger a rally.
This indicates that the market’s broader bullish cues are preventing a bearish crossover, helping to keep Pi Network’s price afloat despite investor hesitation. However, the lack of strong bullish signals from the MACD means that Pi Network is still struggling to gain significant upward traction.
Pi Network’s price grew by 12% over the last 24 hours, briefly reaching $0.65 before falling back to $0.61. This uptick was fueled by broader market bullishness following the US Federal Reserve’s decision to keep interest rates unchanged. However, the altcoin has struggled to maintain its gains, indicating a lack of strong support from investors to push the price higher.
Pi Network continues to consolidate, stuck between $0.61 and $0.57. This ongoing range-bound movement suggests that the altcoin lacks sufficient momentum to break out of its consolidation phase. The price will likely continue moving within this range unless both market and investor support are bolstered, which remains uncertain at this point.
On the other hand, Pi Network could invalidate the bearish outlook if it secures $0.61 as support and begins to rise towards $0.71. Successfully breaching $0.71 could instill confidence in investors, potentially triggering a more substantial rally. However, without a clear shift in sentiment, the price may continue to struggle.