Cryptocurrency has been gaining a lot of traction among members of the public and within businesses in recent years. As the industry continues to grow, it has attracted attention from people in a wide variety of professions. One such example is media personality Nicole Benham.
Benham is a former journalist with bylines in the Los Angeles Business Journal and The Hollywood Reporter. Recently, her name has been linked to a much-talked-about NFT "pump and dump" related to Dogecoin founder Billy Markus's latest project called Blocky Doge 3.
The Blocky Doge 3 collection features what Markus calls "ugly pixel art jpegs of degen dog avatars." However, Benham was touting the project and urging others to join what she cited as a "free mint" offering. She received 250 Blocky Doge 3 NFTs into a wallet she controlled and quickly sold 220 of them at the same price, thus driving down the collection's floor price (the value of the cheapest NFTs in the collection). Profits from the sales were estimated to be around $38,000.
While Benham has since apologized for her role in the situation, the authenticity of this remorse is being questioned. This has prompted Dogecoin founder Billy Markus to attempt to repair the reputational damage by introducing a plan to lessen the negativity. This includes donating all the purchased NFTs to the community wallet, an account controlled by Markus himself.
Markus also indicated that he will be sending the bulk of the NFTs to those who run the Discord community. This would allow the community to decide how to use them, such as by distributing them to individuals who didn't have the opportunity to participate in the mint. The transfer would be done gradually to avoid causing a huge spike in the collection's floor price.
Despite Benham's apology and the proposed resolution, the incident has cast a negative light on the cryptocurrency industry. This serves as a reminder that it is of the utmost importance to put in place regulations and protocols to protect investors in this burgeoning asset class.
Christopher Wood
- 2023-04-13
Media Personality Nicole Benham's Link to NFT Pump and Dump
Recently, media personality Nicole Benham's name has been linked to a much-talked-about NFT "pump and dump" related to Dogecoin founder Billy Markus's latest project called Blocky Doge 3. Despite Benham's apology and proposed resolution, the incident serves as a reminder to put in place regulations to protect investors in this asset class.
