Ethereum enthusiasts and hosts of the Bankless podcast, David Hoffman and Ryan Sean Adams, faced heavy criticism over the weekend following accusations of dumping AICC, the token of Solana-based AI Investment and Development DAO, Aiccelerate.
Both Hoffman and Adams, as well as the brand’s VC arm, had received unlocked token allocations in exchange for small seed investments.
At its peak, AICC was trading at around $0.30, making the 9 million tokens allocated to each worth over $2.5 million, in theory.
The controversial sales came from Bankless Ventures’ 3.64 million allocation on the day of the token launch. Multiple clips of 45,000 AICC were dumped for roughly $10,000 apiece, at an average price of around $0.22.
AICC is currently trading at $0.07, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
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However, Hoffman and Adams have hit back at what they call “a warped version of reality.” They defended themselves by stating that the tokens sold were part of their associated Bankless Ventures allocation, rather than personal investments.
They also pointed to their fellow Bankless partner as the individual who had made the “impulsive mistake,” stating that the proceeds were then spent on buying back the token at far lower prices.
A dashboard of each investor’s initial allocation and current balances shows the Bankless Ventures address currently holding slightly more tokens than originally assigned. It also shows Adams’ address having held his allocation, and Hoffman’s account having moved the tokens to another address, where they remain.
Reactions to a messy launch
The original thread to call out Bankless’ actions raises further concerns, including inviting Aiccelerate’s co-founder Ejaaz Ahamadeen onto their (usually exclusively Ethereum-focused) podcast, and the lack of a lockup period for investor tokens.
Ahamadeen posted some reflections on the “incredibly tough day” to X where he states that the team “got swept up in excitement and got ahead of ourselves without properly thinking through the structure & allocation process.”
In order to move forward he plans to donate part of his own allocation “to the community” and vest the rest, as well as securing further community distribution via “airdrops and donations to DAOs.”
However, plenty of valid questions still remain, such as the actions of one investor, InsiderJudas.
Some sympathized with Bankless, pointing out that it is the project’s responsibility to ensure a responsible vesting and unlock schedule for investor tokens.
Others opted for memes, comparing the itchy trigger fingered-selling to Hailey “Hawk Tuah” Welch’s recent memecoin pump-and-dump fiasco.
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The discussion comes during a tricky time for crypto’s latest hype train, with the “AI Agents” and “AI & Big Data” categories on CoinMarketCap down 15.66% and 8.68%, respectively.
