DYOR your launch partners, trust is not enough

BABs’ Take on $LIBRA

Crypto runs on trust. Really. Not the old-world kind backed by banks and governments, but trust in builders, the code, and the community. The damage goes beyond a single rug pull when that trust is shattered, as we saw with $LIBRA over the weekend. It weakens the entire ecosystem and signals to serious investors that this space is still the Wild West, where insiders can milk the system while everyone else gets left holding worthless bags.

Once trust is gone, good luck bringing it back.

For marketers and KOLs, trust is your currency. Promote the wrong project, and it won’t just be your audience that gets rekt; you will, too. Your reputation is your leverage; if you sell it out for quick gains, you won’t have a career for long.

Let’s break down the $LIBRA’s mess:

• Rapid Surge and Collapse: After promotion by a high-profile figure, $LIBRA’s value skyrocketed to a market cap of $4.5 billion, only to plummet by 95% within hours, erasing billions in investor funds.
• Insider Manipulation: Investigations revealed that a single wallet, 0xcEA, was linked to multiple memecoin scams, including $LIBRA. This wallet engaged in “sniping” tactics, buying large quantities of tokens at launch and dumping them for massive profits, leaving retail investors with heavy losses.
• Concentrated Holdings: On-chain analysis showed that a few insiders controlled 82% of the token supply, indicating a premeditated plan to manipulate the market.
• Massive Financial Losses: The orchestrators withdrew $87 million from liquidity pools, and insiders cashed out an additional $107 million, leading to a total of $194 million siphoned from unsuspecting investors.

DYOR or Get Wrecked

If there’s one lesson to take away from the $LIBRA mess, it’s this: Do Your Own Research (DYOR) or prepare to get rekt. The space rewards those who know what they’re doing and punishes those who don’t. But DYOR isn’t just about checking a whitepaper or glancing at a few tweets. It’s about digging deep, understanding the people behind the project, questioning everything, and verifying claims before putting your money — or your reputation — on the line if they ask you to promote it.

If you’re a marketer, KOL, or business in crypto, DYOR isn’t optional. It’s survival.

Here’s how to do it:

• Know the team. If a project is being pushed by anonymous developers with zero verifiable track record, that’s a major red flag. Good projects are built by people willing to stand behind their work.
• Follow the money. Who’s backing it? Who’s profiting the most? Are insiders getting allocations that let them dump on retail? If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
• Check liquidity and tokenomics. If 82% of the supply is sitting in a few wallets, you’re not in a community-driven project; you’re in someone’s exit liquidity plan.
• Look at incentives. Are they building for long-term value, or does the entire model rely on hype and momentum to keep the price up? Sustainable projects think beyond the next pump.
• See who’s promoting it. If a bunch of paid influencers are shilling it without real conviction, it’s probably another cash grab.

If you’re getting paid to promote something, you better ensure it’s legit. Because when the rug gets pulled, no one will remember the project’s name; they’ll remember yours.

This is The Way: Accountability

Crypto is at a crossroads. Either it evolves into something sustainable or remains a playground for pump-and-dumpers. If we want the former, we must demand accountability from everyone, including marketers and KOLs.

Some solutions:

• More transparency. If a project doesn’t have clear tokenomics and team disclosures, don’t touch it. If they don’t show you everything up front, assume they’re hiding something.
• Better industry standards. If major players hold bad actors accountable, the industry will clean itself up faster. The more we let bad actors slide, the more they’ll keep playing the same game.
• More scrutiny on paid promotions. KOLs who take money to shill scams should be called out. There should be no more free passes. Your audience trusts you; if you sell them out, that’s on you.
• Push for actual innovation. Memecoins and hype projects are fun, but if we want this space to last, we must focus on real-world use cases, better infrastructure, and sustainable business models.

Crypto doesn’t have to be a grift. But if these insider games keep happening, that’s all it will ever be.

In the end, $LIBRA barely gained traction in some regions because people smelled the scam early. That should tell you something: Trust is hard to build and easy to destroy. If crypto is ever going to grow up, it needs fewer games and more accountability.

And at BABs, we’re here to make sure that happens.