Bollywood A-lister backed Gari token's plunge sparks rug pull rumours

The GARI token was designed to help Indian creators monetise their content via the short video application Chingari

By Shashank Bhardwaj

Image: Shutterstock

GARI token, the native token of the Chingari platform, lost over 83 percent of its value in a few hours on Monday. While the GARI Network dismissed this development as a “market event”, investors believe it to be a rug-pull. The token was launched by Bollywood A-lister Salman Khan to help creators monetise their content via the video streaming Chingari app and its NFT marketplace.

The current bear market has brought about the downfall of multiple crypto ecosystems and tokens over the past few months. GARI token seems one of the many that have fallen prey to the current bear market.

Data from TradingView revealed that GARI has remained very stable over the last six months, averaging around $0.60. The token's bearish movement started on June 20, but its steady status already gave way on June 4 when it fell by 83.29 percent to its all-time low trading value of $0.1. At the time of writing, the token was trading at $0.15 after making several attempts for a possible revival.

Investors quickly began comparing the scenario to the Terra (LUNA), renamed Terra Classic (LUNC), and TerraUSD (UST) collapses, with one member referring to the actor as "Salman Kwon”.

Johnny Lyu, the CEO of KuCoin, a prominent crypto exchange, shed light on the situation by detailing the chain of events that led to the recent price fluctuation of the GARI token. Lyu stated, "Because KuCoin is the largest and most liquid market for GARI, most traders preferred to sell here during the initial dumping stage. During the temporary price difference, GARI investors began buying low at KuCoin and selling high elsewhere."

The GARI network said, "So far, this looks like a market event. We assure our community that ALL tokens are safe in the respective reserves." They also conducted an internal investigation and discovered no obvious hacks that could cause the token's prices to plummet.

GARI'S team also announced that they are in discussions with Indian crypto exchanges to examine the situation better. Lyu also assured investors that he had no participation in the GARI token's downfall, saying, "We are still checking more trading details to find if there's anything abnormal. KuCoin, as a neutral platform, has nothing to do with this price movement."

In order to provide more information, clear up any rumours or doubts, and boost investor confidence, the GARI network planned an AMA session. The viewers, though, could not join this session, as they were greeted with a 404 error when attempting to do so.

A representative from Chingari said that the GARI tokens are used to "connect and transact with their counterparties, place governance votes, and catalyse platform engagement and user base growth."

Investors are urging the public to be careful and DYOR (do your own research) while investing in the crypto market due to the current bear market, as not even the support of a Bollywood A-list actor could help the GARI token maintain its steady position during this time.

The writer is the founder at yMedia. He ventured into crypto in 2013 and is an ETH maximalist. Twitter: @bhardwajshash

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