- The suspect is reportedly an Indian politician
- The victim claims to have made around 60 transactions
- The suspect had convinced the victim to exchange USDT tokens for Bao Bao Panda tokens
A Dubai-based businessman and crypto investor reportedly lost AED 2.2 million in an alleged scam involving the Bao Bao Panda memecoin. The Dubai police have opened an investigation into the suspected crypto fraud case last week.
Memecoins are crypto tokens that are generally modelled after social media trends. While these tokens usually do not carry any intrinsic value of their own, they often gain prices owing to the hype as investors keep seeking the next token that could rocket to the moon, price-wise. Dogecoin and Shiba Inu are among popular memecoins that have managed to carve their respective places in the crypto market over the years.
Here’s what is known about this Bao Bao Panda scam
The memecoin project landed in the crypto market carrying inspiration by the famous femail giant panda bear, Bao Bao, who lives at the China Conservation and Research Center in the Sichuan Province. According to CoinGecko, the Bao Bao Panda token claims to turn “viral content into funding for endangered species” using AI-driven decision-making and a sustainable meme-to-earn system.
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As reported by Khaleej Times, an Indian man has been identified as a suspect in duping the Dubai-based businessman off AED 2.2 million. The suspect had been offering crypto investment plans in the UAE, posing as a licenced virtal assets trader.
A fraud case has been registered against the suspect by Al Riffa Police, that has now opened a probe against him for violating UAE’s anti money laundering laws and national crypto laws. The suspect had reportedly bolted out of the country in April.
Citing the unnamed businessman, the report said he made nearly 60 crypto transfers — wherein he wired the suspect $600,941 worth of USDT (Tether) tokens in exchange for Bao Bao Panda tokens. The suspect had promised double returns to the victim.
The victim has claimed that the suspect is an Indian politician, who along with his son, convinced him to initiate the transactions only to lead him into a dead transaction trail.
More details from the investigation remain awiated for now.
Data by CoinGecko shows that the Bao Bao Panda token is presently trading at $0.082316. Its total market cap stands at merely $23,162.12.
VARA’s advisory on memecoins
In February this year, Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) had flagged the memecoin menace that was littering the crypto market.
Advising investors to steer clear from these tokens VARA had said, “memecoins are frequently subject to market manipulation. Many such assets lack intrinsic value and derive their pricing from social media trends or misleading promotional strategies,” VARA said in its statement.”
Hester Peirce, the commissioner of the U.S. SEC had also alerted the investor comminuty against the potential risks memecoins could expose them to.
The current valuation of the memecoin sector is estimated to be $59.3 billion, Forbes estimates.
