Known as April Fools’ Day, April 1st is the opportunity for many to play pranks. But the problem is when one of these “gotchas” makes people lose a quarter of the amount invested in a supposed “project” launched on this date.
This happened to the Juicebox network’s token, JBX, after the network pulled an April 1 prank. According to the message, the Ethereum-based crowdfunding platform had secured a $69 million funding round backed by crypto venture capital firm Paradigm.
The person who published the message was Juicebox’s content manager on his X profile. However, the news was false and aimed to take advantage of April Fools’ Day. The manager himself, who goes by the pseudonym “Briliegh.eth”, asked people not to buy the JBX token based on the news.
But the warning came too late and many people believed the prank. When the truth came out, investors quickly liquidated JBX on the market, causing the token’s price to fall by 25%.
Joke that resulted in huge losses
The impact of the news was so strong that Briliegh changed her account to “private” after the repercussions. In other words, he started to restrict the viewing of tweets to his followers only.
“Proud to announce our $69 million fundraising!” Briliegh said in the post. He didn’t name investors, but Paradigm’s image caught the market’s attention and started a frenzy.
Following the announcement, JBX experienced a rally of over 40% that saw its price reach $0.0043, according to CoinGecko. The frenzy lasted only an hour, until Briliegh confessed it was all a joke.
“Happy April Fools’ Day everyone!” the profile said, warning speculators against purchasing JBX tokens in anticipation of financial gains. The revelation caused a drop in the price of JBX, with the token’s value plummeting by 25%.
The prank’s aftermath sparked backlash from several X users. Briliegh deleted the message after he moved his account to private, but users took screenshots and spread the prank. Many criticized the supposed joke and its consequences, and some even called for the arrest of Juicebox’s content manager.
More April Fools pranks
In a similar incident, the WAVES token, which powers the blockchain of the same name, experienced a brief 5% price increase after its pseudonymous founder “Sasha” announced a fake AI integration. The joke also received criticism and accusations of market manipulation.
On a lighter note, David Hoffman, Ethereum (ETH) maximalist and co-host of Bankless, announced his fake departure from Ethereum to join forces with Austin Federa and Yakovenko at the Solana Foundation.
Hoffman joked about becoming the “VP of Decentralization,” mocking common criticism that Solana is not as decentralized as Ethereum. But in this case, few people believed it.
BitMEX Research also playfully suggested that the Grayscale Bitcoin ETF (GBTC) saw no outflows on April 1, a clear dig at the significant outflows GBTC has seen in recent weeks. They later clarified in a follow-up post that the actual outflow was $303 million on April 1.
And finally, even CriptoFácil joined the fun on April 1st and “created” a new cryptocurrency mining concept: Proof of Noise (PoN).
Source: https://www.criptofacil.com/piada-de-1o-de-abril-faz-investidores-terem-prejuizo-de-ate-25/
