Falasi Uncovered: Part 2 — Grifting the Grove Green Army

Falasi posted a picture of his 24K Gold Coffee after he dumped over $100,000 worth of Grove (he later deleted the tweet)

Part two of this series begins with Falasi’s introduction to Grove. In the course of our investigation, we found significant blockchain and social media evidence that suggests Falasi was not only privy to insider information, but a critical component of the Grove marketing plan.

To compensate Falasi for his role in the scheme, we found staggering sums paid to Falasi by official and unofficial Grove wallets. These payments often coincided with announcements of meaningful corporate events, such as royal partnerships and a supposed prestigious appointment to an official metaverse position.

While our research is ongoing, we have found that Falasi has received over $2 million USD in cash and token payments. Within this amount, Falasi was paid close to two Quadrillion Grove tokens, nearly 4% of the current circulating supply, that was dispersed across eight wallets. To date he has liquidated over half of those tokens.

Green Royalty: Falasi & Grove’s Royal Connections

In February of 2022, Falasi started to interact with Grove team members regarding the project. On February 6th, 2022, Falasi congratulated Mendy after she announced via Twitter that her appointment as co-founder of GroveToken and GroveBusiness “marks the first ever owned or co-owned cryptocurrency by a woman.”

Mendy claimed to be the first woman to ever own or co-own a cryptocurrency. She has since deleted the tweet.

For the remainder of February, Falasi posted very little about Grove. However, it is clear that discussions between Falasi and the Grove team were progressing behind the scenes.

On March 1st, 2022, the first day Grove began trading on PancakeSwap, Falasi posted a picture of a 12 Trillion GVR buy.

Evaluating blockchain transactions, we were able to find the transaction and the corresponding wallet address: 0xa71100151069a945ed8fed8c5d62d9edca6bffdd

Despite stating “[I] am in this for the long term”¹⁰ just 16 minutes following the post above, the very next day (March 2nd) Falasi dumped his Grove tokens.

But, whatever deal was struck, Falasi did what was agreed, and within 30 minutes of selling the Grove tokens he purchased with his own BNB, he was paid 200 Trillion Grove tokens directly from the Grove contract owner.

After posting about his 12 Trillion GVR buy, Falasi dumps the GVR he purchased and is then given 200 Trillion Grove from the Grove team

We will return to this wallet shortly, but it is important to point out an additional wallet Falasi disclosed via Twitter. Called out by @realFUD, Falasi shared the following wallet address while attempting to win free tokens in September of 2021.

Using these two wallets as starting points, we were able to identify a comprehensive list of Falasi Wallets. A detailed accounting of these wallets is available in Appendix B.

Grove Tokens Gifted to Falasi

Despite JohnG repeatedly saying that everyone paid for their tokens, by analyzing Falasi’s wallets (and other team member wallets), we know this statement to be false.

Across 17 wallets we identified as Falasi wallets, we found that he received approximately 1.8 Quadrillion Grove tokens from the Grove team. At a circulating supply of 48 Quadrillion tokens, Falasi’s gifted tokens represent 3.75% of the total circulating supply. These payments do not include the Tether, BUSD, BNB, and ETH payments sent to Falasi from the Grove team, which we will address in the following section.

Grove Tokens sent to Bassam Al Falasi wallets as of December 20, 2022. See Appendix B for wallet details.

As previously documented by @realFUD, it was well known that Falasi dumped 125 Trillion Grove tokens from the ETH side of “Falasi 1” in July. However, what was not previously known was both the extent of the tokens given to Falasi, as well as the extent of his dumping.

In the same wallet (i.e., “Falasi 1”), but on the BSC side, Falasi had been given 100 Trillion Grove tokens on March 6th. He dumped those tokens within one month of receiving them¹¹.

While dumping 225 Trillion Grove tokens may seem like an astounding amount for any investor, for Falasi, it was a small fraction. We found that as of December 20, 2022, Falasi had dumped 925 Trillion of the gifted Grove tokens.

Pertains only to Grove given to Falasi by Grove team. Does not include small amounts of Grove sold by Falasi that he individually purchased.

In addition to the extensive dumping, it is important to highlight three additional concerns:

1. While Falasi was telling his followers in Twitter that he was in Grove for the long run, and that he would lock up his tokens, he had already dumped significant amounts of Grove and would continue to dump on Grove investors.
2. Many sells occurred beyond the advertised limits (i.e., anti-whale protection limits).
3. We estimate that Falasi currently has over 870 Trillion Grove tokens remaining in his wallets that he can dump upon completion of the V3 conversion (i.e., “GroveCoin”).

The Falasi “Long Run”

Sadly, there have been many cases of influencers telling their followers to buy while they secretly dump their own holdings. Ben Philips, Jake Paul, and Soulja Boy were caught pumping Safemoon while simultaneously dumping their holdings. Falasi was no different.

As discussed in the previous section, Falasi posted to all of his followers that he had bought 12 Trillion Grove tokens on the first day of trading. However, he neglected to tell his followers that he sold those tokens the following day.

In fact, during the first several days of trading, Falasi repeatedly misled his followers with comments that he was “in [Grove] for long term” and that he would lock up his tokens.

Falasi saying he is “in [Grove] for long term”. He began selling the next day.

While he told his followers on March 1st that he was in Grove for the long term, he began selling the modest amount of Grove he purchased the next day. More importantly, he also began selling the significant sums of Grove he had been given. On March 2nd alone, Falasi sold 62 Trillion Grove tokens.

Falasi stating that “I wouldnt [sic] think of selling at first place now or in future”.

On March 6th, Falasi told his followers that he wouldn’t even think of selling, “now or in the future.” Contrary to his word, Falasi had already sold over 150 Trillion Grove tokens, and over the next three weeks, would sell an additional 250 Trillion Grove tokens.

In response to JohnG’s suggestion that Falasi stake his tokens, Falasi responded that he “would be pleased to lock them for life as a generational investment and good cause.” Instead of locking his tokens, Falasi continued dumping.

Not only did Falasi deceive his followers into believing he would hold his tokens for the long term, he helped increase excitement to draw new investors to Grove. Multiple times throughout March Falasi suggested he was privy to exciting inside information, which encouraged new investors to buy. Falasi used phrases such as, “I promise you very soon #GroveToken”¹² and “wait for whats [sic] coming next for #grove”¹³ to imply he was privy to insider information that would lead to a significant increase in the token price.

There are many examples of Falasi’s words contradicting his actions. In a particularly egregious case, on July 16th, Falasi told his followers that he was “Trying my best to make it reach the stars” and “Lets #EatThat0 #GVR.”

That same day, Falasi dumped 135 Trillion tokens across three wallets (see previous section that outlines the wallets Falasi used to dump).

Anti-Whale Protection Avoidance

One of the core protections Grove marketed to potential investors was its “Anti whale System.”

Investors were told that (1) no investor may hold more than 500 Trillion Grove tokens, and (2) holders cannot sell more than 50 Trillion Grove tokens every six hours¹⁴. To the benefit of insiders and detriment of their investors, Grove navigated restrictions by distributing tokens across a range of wallets owned by the same individual.

As documented above, Falasi was sent an amount of Grove tokens well over the 500 Trillion limit. To avoid detection, Grove distributed the tokens to eight different Falasi wallets so that any one wallet would hold less than the 500 Trillion maximum.

Similarly, to avoid the maximum transaction limit, Falasi was able to dump Grove tokens from different wallets in amounts that far exceeded the “anti-whale” sell limit. The following are several examples during the period when the maximum sell was limited to 50 Trillion Grove tokens over a six-hour period:

• March 5th, 2022: Falasi sold 100 Trillion Grove tokens split across two wallets. The sales occurred three minutes apart (21:15 and 21:18).
• March 28th, 2022: Falasi sold 150 Trillion Grove tokens split across three wallets. The sales occurred three minutes apart (18:45, 18:46, and 18:48).
• July 1st, 2022: Falasi sold 100 Trillion Grove tokens split across two wallets. The sales occurred six minutes apart (3:33 and 3:39).
• July 19th, 2022: Falasi sold 141 Trillion Grove tokens split across three wallets. The sales occurred less than an hour apart (17:44, 17:50, 18:43)

Falasi’s Remaining Tokens

While the damage to Grove’s price from dumping over 925 Trillion tokens has been done, there remains the potential and likelihood that Falasi will continue dumping his Grove tokens following the conversion to the V3 contract (also known as “GroveCoin”).

As documented, Falasi was given approximately 1.8 Quadrillion tokens by the Grove team. After dumping 925 Trillion Grove tokens, he holds another 874 Trillion tokens that will be converted to the GroveCoin token.

In reviewing the blockchain history of Falasi’s wallets, several of the wallets that had not previously sold any Grove tokens have recently executed the “approve” function that enables the tokens to be traded on PancakeSwap. For example, the “Falasi 3” wallet executed the “approve” function that enables trading on PancakeSwap on December 8th, as did the “Falasi 8” wallet. Both wallets have since begun selling.

The following section analyzes the expected price impact assuming Falasi continues to dump the remainder of his tokens.

Scenario Analysis¹⁵

In response to @realFUD pointing out Falasi’s dumping in July, Mendy Parker responded that “Dumped and profit taking are 2 different things,” implying that the action was harmless to investors.

In this section, we analyze (1) the impact of Falasi’s past dumping on the Grove price, and (2) the future impact on the Grove price if Falasi sells his remaining Grove holdings. While the V3 contract goes live on January 6, 2023, the analysis remains valid.

Since GroveToken is traded on PancakeSwap, an automated market maker following the constant product formula, we can approximate the impact of Falasi’s dumping with simple algebra. See Appendix C for the math behind this analysis.

The chart below plots the percentage increase in price if Falasi were to buy back the Grove tokens he dumped on the Grove investors.

At the time of this analysis, the price of Grove was $0.000000000699. If Falasi bought back just 200 Trillion of the Grove he dumped, the price would rise to $0.000000000928, or a 33% increase.

If Falasi bought back 400 Trillion of the Grove he dumped, the price would rise 85% to $0.000000001291. And if Falasi bought back the full 925.5 Trillion Grove he dumped, the Grove price would rise 560% to a price of $0.000000004629.

Unfortunately, the prospect of Falasi buying back the Grove he dumped is rather low. Based on his actions, it is far more likely that he will dump the remaining 870 Trillion tokens he holds. The chart below illustrates the expected impact to price using today’s Grove price.

From the above chart and table, if Falasi proceeds to dump the remainder of his Grove tokens, we can expect the price of Grove to decline another 60%. Even if Falasi only dumps half of his current holdings, the price would be expected to decline another 40% (the above amounts and prices will change after Grove’s conversion to the V3 contract, but the results/%Decline will be the same).

Cash & Other Non-Grove Payments to Falasi

Thus far, our analysis has focused on the significant amount of Grove tokens gifted to Falasi and the corresponding impacts of his dumping. However, Grove’s GVR token payments to Falasi represent only a portion of the Falasi payouts.

The full scope of payments to Falasi extends beyond gifted Grove tokens to significant amounts of BUSD, Tether, BNB, and ETH. Often times these payments were from the Grove BuyBack Wallet, Grove Marketing Wallet, and the Grove Contract Owner Wallet, among other official and unofficial corporate wallets. The amounts paid to Falasi were staggering.

Non-stablecoin payments valued on date of transfer

We found $1.5mm in BUSD and nearly $500,000 of Tether paid to Falasi from Grove official and unofficial wallets. The Grove totals above were valued at the time of transfer. Since Falasi was sent a significant amount of his Grove tokens before the initial pump, he was able to cash out his Grove tokens for significantly more than illustrated in the graph above.

Dump Wallet: 0xa5d892d7c5c29482212fe6b8cccca3c5e076c375 was exempted from fees and maximum transaction limit on April 3, 2022

The overwhelming majority of BUSD payments to Falasi came from official Grove wallets. While not explicitly named as an official Grove wallet in the contract, the Grove Dump Wallet (called out by Saita Prince for dumping on July 19, 2022) was exempted from fees and the maximum transaction limit on April 3rd, 2022.

In addition to analyzing the source and form of payments to Falasi wallets, we also cross referenced the timing of the payments against notable corporate events. While there is certainly a lead/lag relationship in the timing of payments vs. event, we find the following of particular note:

Major Falasi Payment Events:

• March 1: Falasi posts to his followers that he bought Grove across six wallets. March 2: Falasi receives 200 Trillion Grove tokens from the Contract Owner Wallet.
• March 6: Falasi defends Grove, says he is in Grove for long run and will be locking tokens. Same day: Falasi receives 100 Trillion Grove tokens from the Contract Owner Wallet.
• March 19: Grove team leaves Dubai following Crypto Dubai Event, which Falasi coordinated. March 20: Falasi receives 150 Trillion Grove tokens from the Contract Owner Wallet.
• May 4–5: Falasi was paid $150,000 BUSD. May 5th: Grove makes the announcement that JohnG will be meeting with Sheikh Butti Al Maktoum.
• June 14–28: Falasi was paid $150,000 in BUSD and Tether and 500 Trillion in Grove via the ERC20 Presale Airdrop. June 29: Grove has meeting with Sheikh Butti Al Maktoum.
• June 30-July 4: Falasi was paid $311,000 BUSD. July 4: Grove announces official partnership with Sheikh Butti Al Maktoum.
• July 18: Falasi was paid $145,000 BUSD. Same day: JohnG announces he is the new managing director of Sheikh Butti Al Maktoum’s metaverse business.
• October 6: Falasi was paid $45,000 Tether (paid $52k on October 3 and 4). Same day: Dubai Crypto Expo begins with Falasi delivering keynote and sitting at the Grove booth.
• December 7: Falasi was paid $33,000. December 8: Grove shares “official DMCC paperwork” for New Era Metaverse via Twitter. Falasi receives additional $34,000.

Concluding Remarks

In Part 1, we documented that despite the Grove team’s claims, Bassam Al Falasi is not royalty. His position as “General Advisor” amounts to little more than a personal assistant for his royal brother-in-law.

Despite his position, Grove has used his ties to a low-ranking member of Dubai’s royal family to market their project and enrich insiders. In Part 2, we showed that, to secure this relationship, Grove spent millions (USD) on meaningless royal partnerships, managing director positions in worthless metaverse corporations, and influencer marketing schemes facilitated by an individual impersonating Dubai royalty.

Financing these expenses has come at great cost. Falasi’s dumping alone has cost loyal Grove investors significant amounts of personal capital. However, the dumping was not limited to Falasi. To finance BUSD and Tether payments to Falasi, Grove has had to dump from official and unofficial corporate wallets.

With over 870 Trillion Grove tokens remaining in Falasi’s wallets, and the vast majority of the Grove circulating supply controlled by insiders, investors should prepare for continued sell pressure following the V3 conversion (i.e., “GroveCoin”) until the project is ultimately dissolved and the cofounders move on to their next scheme.

Significant Contributors: Bootsy Cynic and two anonymous researchers that dedicated (and continue to dedicate) their expertise and time in search of truth…you know who you are.

Appendix A: Endnotes

10. Post captured below

11. Falasi also bought 50 Trillion Grove tokens in this wallet in April, which he dumped a month later in May.

12. The following are examples of Falasi “promising” important news to induce buying:

13. The following are examples of Falasi implying that he has insider information regarding the future of Grove:

14. This amount was originally set to 50 Trillion tokens at contract deployment but was reduced to 10 Trillion in July, 2022 following a community vote. Allegedly accidental, the amount was increased to 100 Trillion instead of the agreed upon 10 Trillion on July 24th, before it was reduced to 10 Trillion two days later.

15. The scenario analysis presented is an approximation and does not take into account gas fees, slippage, buy/sell taxes, cross-exchange arbitrage or other ancillary impacts.

Appendix B: Identifying Falasi Wallets

“bnalfasai33”: 0xa71100151069a945ed8fed8c5d62d9edca6bffdd

Conviction: Very High

There are multiple links to this wallet. First, this Twitter post links Falasi to a purchase of 12.17 Trillion Grove tokens:

Tracking this transaction on the blockchain leads us to the above transaction, and the corresponding wallet address:

There are additional markers that link this wallet to Falasi. One of these markers was found by Bootsy Cynic, who pointed out the OpenSea account name for the wallet address:

Perhaps an unintentional misspelling or an intentional misspelling intended to hide his identity, it is clear this wallet belongs to Falasi.

“Falasi 1”: 0xdd8866d6063420836418c3c219d63aa06a466b06

Conviction: Very High

• Fonzie / @realFUD caught Falasi dumping Grove following the ERC-20 presale. After being found out, Falasi quickly deleted the post with his wallet address, but Fonzi had already taken a screenshot:

• Receives ETH from 0x151B381058f91cF871E7eA1eE83c45326F61e96D (see Falasi 9, 10, 13)
• Receives ETH from 0x8216874887415e2650D12D53Ff53516F04a74FD7 (see Falasi 8, 9, 10, 14)

“Falasi 2 (offramping)”: 0x4D82fa7F7329c161c06463db95487d34204B82e2

Conviction: Very High

• This wallet receives substantial sums of BNB and BUSD from “bnalfasai33,” Falasi 1, and Falasi 3.
• The wallet is used to offramp funds to Binance (tweets confirm that Falasi is a user of Binance).

“Falasi 3”: 0x224eb0ba875d0cc98455df3805847487c984acaa

Conviction: Very High

While we do not have an explicit wallet address posting or a transaction like we do with Wallets 1 and 2, there is significant evidence that this wallet also belongs to Falasi:

1. On the Ethereum side, the wallet is funded with 1.26 ETH from “bnalfasai33” on February 2, 2022
2. On the Ethereum side, it transacts in tokens Falasi has publicly supported (e.g., Saitama and especially KOA Combat)
3. On the BSC side, the wallet receives BNB from “bnalfasai33” on March 2, 2022
4. It Offramps to “Falasi 2 (offramping),” which is used by “bnalfasai33” and “Falasi 1”

“Falasi 4”: 0xd1cd7e93b5a14b354a38376e3072f49bfc1890c7

Conviction: Moderately High

• On the BSC side, this wallet offramps $110,150 of BUSD it received from other corporate wallets (e.g., Grove Marketing Wallet) to “Falasi 2 (offramping)”
• On the BSC side, this wallet is funded with 0.03 BNB from “Falasi 10” on July 14, 2022
• On the BSC side, this wallet received 100 Trillion of Grove from a known corporate wallet on July 22, 2022.

“Falasi 5”: 0x24923ba96fe1eb5a93b7c4de3087679c09358507

Conviction: Very High

• On the ETH side, this wallet was funded by “bnalfasai33” with 0.28 ETH on October 22, 2021
• This wallet received regular ETH transfers from “bnalfasai33” in BNB and other tokens in the Saitama ecosystem
• This wallet uses “Falasi 2 (offramping)” to offramp Tether

“Falasi 6 (offramping)”: 0x7630c163E116da7C1b29dE66675B85BCe7E9b1B4

Conviction: Moderately High

• On the ETH side, this wallet receives significant amounts of ETH from “Falasi 1” in July after it dumped 50 Trillion of Grove.
• “Falasi 6” receives funds for offramping from Falasi 8, 13, and 14 on the ETH side and Falasi 7, 9, 10, 12, and 13 on the BSC side. Importantly, Falasi 7, 8, 9, and 10 have also sent funds to “Falasi 2” for offramping, which further ties the wallets together.
• The wallet is used to offramp funds to Binance (tweets confirm that Falasi is a user of Binance).

“Falasi 7”: 0xAdE74b1F30F33ba31382d38aA25c04415C98d4D9

Conviction: Very High

• On the BSC side, funded with 0.01 BNB from “Falasi 9” on July 1, 2022
• Regularly offramps significant sums of BUSD to “Falasi 2 (offramping)
• Offramps BNB and BUSD to “Falasi 6 (offramping)
• Receives BNB from Binance Hot Wallet (tweets confirm that Falasi is a user of Binance)
• Begins offramping to “Falasi 15 (offramping)” in December of 2022
• On BSC side received 124.56 Trillion from known corporate wallet on April 29, 2022

“Falasi 8”: 0x8710edc10c2fc16ee9d00ba65f2359b5f61fd92b

Conviction: Very High

• Very similar history with “Falasi 7”
• On the BSC side, funded with 0.01 BNB from “Falasi 9” on July 1, 2022
• Regularly offramps significant sums of BUSD to “Falasi 2 (offramping)
• On ETH side, offramps Tether to “Falasi 6 (offramping)
• Receives BNB from Binance Hot Wallet (tweets confirm that Falasi is a user of Binance)
• Begins offramping to “Falasi 15 (offramping)” in December of 2022 (BSC and ETH sides)
• Receives ETH from 0x8216874887415e2650D12D53Ff53516F04a74FD7 (see Falasi 1, 9, 10, 14)
• On ETH side, received 125 Trillion Grove from Contract Owner in Presale and on BSC side received 124.56 Trillion from known corporate wallet on April 29, 2022

“Falasi 9”: 0x0cd1463424b9f90f536c939490b8ea2afd0bf641

Conviction: Very High

• On the BSC side, funded with 0.25 BNB from “Falasi 10” on July 1, 2022
• Offramps BNB and BUSD to “Falasi 2 (offramping)
• Offramps BNB to “Falasi 6 (offramping)”
• Receives BNB from Binance Hot Wallet (tweets confirm that Falasi is a user of Binance)
• Begins offramping to “Falasi 15 (offramping)” in December of 2022
• Receives ETH from 0x151B381058f91cF871E7eA1eE83c45326F61e96D (see Falasi 1, 10, 13)
• Receives ETH from 0x8216874887415e2650D12D53Ff53516F04a74FD7 (see Falasi 1, 8, 10, 14)
• On ETH side, received 125 Trillion Grove from Contract Owner in Presale and on BSC side received 124.56 Trillion from known corporate wallet on April 29, 2022

“Falasi 10”: 0xC9c76CF043f220363b1e9079c7C69B50c6D7f886

Conviction: Very High

• On the BSC side, funded with 0.25 BNB from “Falasi 10” on July 1, 2022
• On BSC side, regularly offramps to “Falasi 2 (offramping)
• On BSC side, offramps BNB to “Falasi 6 (offramping)”
• On BSC side, sends BNB to “Falasi 9”
• Receives ETH from 0x151B381058f91cF871E7eA1eE83c45326F61e96D (see Falasi 1, 9, 13)
• Receives ETH from 0x8216874887415e2650D12D53Ff53516F04a74FD7 (see Falasi 1, 8, 9, 14)
• On ETH side, received 125 Trillion Grove from Contract Owner in Presale and on BSC side received 124.56 Trillion from known corporate wallet on April 29, 2022

“Falasi 11”: 0xb7f275b9f6e73ed3C9d6c459a75E6fBEd1c1AeE3

Conviction: Very High

• Receives ETH from Binance Hot Wallet (tweets confirm that Falasi is a user of Binance)
• Receives ETH from “bnalfasai33”
• Receives Saitama from “Falasi 5” and “bnalfasai33”

“Falasi 12”: 0xb8fb4236870D123A7646Ca18b275A876c044faE5

Conviction: Moderately High

• Receives BNB from Binance Hot Wallet (tweets confirm that Falasi is a user of Binance)
• Regularly offramps to “Falasi 6 (offramping)

“Falasi 13”: 0x677E92266F4d90CfE134f0a44bbFd2AB363773f2

Conviction: Moderately High

• Receives BNB from Binance Hot Wallet (tweets confirm that Falasi is a user of Binance)
• Regularly offramps to “Falasi 6 (offramping)
• Receives ETH from 0x151B381058f91cF871E7eA1eE83c45326F61e96D (see Falasi 1, 9, 10)

“Falasi 14”: 0x46A07E51036bF0E1459B79342583397163f82449

Conviction: Moderately High

• Receives BNB from Binance Hot Wallet (tweets confirm that Falasi is a user of Binance)
• Offramps to “Falasi 2(offramping),” “Falasi 6 (offramping),” “Falasi 15 (offramping)”
• Funded with ETH from 0x8216874887415e2650D12D53Ff53516F04a74FD7 (see Falasi 1, 8, 9, 10)

“Falasi 15 (offramping)”: 0xCCF6df2807267BcF33cbbb733d21B46f47Def60c

Conviction: Moderately High

• On ETH side, receives Tether from Falasi 8, 9, 14 for offramping
• On BSC side, receives BUSD from Falasi 4, 7, 8, 14, 16 for offramping
• Offramps to Binance Hot Wallet (tweets confirm that Falasi is a user of Binance)
• Funded with ETH from 0x8216874887415e2650D12D53Ff53516F04a74FD7 (see Falasi 1, 8, 9, 10)

“Falasi 16”: 0x3422c0a665021c75F5a24136a173b5Af6e1F7f12

Conviction: Moderately High

• Passthrough wallet that receives BUSD from Grove Marketing Wallet and Binance Hot Wallet and sends to “Falasi 15 (offramping)” wallet

Appendix C: Constant Product AMM Maths