Bannon's anti-Biden crypto has backdoor that can stop MAGA fans selling

Investors in Steve Bannon's anti-Biden, pro-MAGA crypto have complained of arbitrarily frozen balances after dumping some of their tokens.

Trump backer Steve Bannon wants to “Fuck Joe Biden” with the MAGA movement’s own crypto, but it seems holders are the ones getting screwed.

Bannon has been promoting Binance Smart Chain-powered crypto Let’s Go Brandon (FJB) as a “currency for the MAGA movement” over the past few months.

The token launched last October, inspired by the anti-Biden slogan inadvertently coined by a NASCAR presenter when she tried to cover up a “fuck Joe Biden” chant during a television broadcast.

Let’s Go Brandon adopted the “FJB” ticker symbol as short-hand for the chant.

Alongside political strategist Boris Epshteyn (who seems to have bought control the token with Bannon), Bannon has told podcast listeners FJB would help MAGA folk “fight for Trump and their country.”

“We’ve got a coin. It shows your total and complete independence, our non-reliance, and you’re going to very quickly have non-reliance on their financial system — so no longer can they bother you,” said Bannon (via Mother Jones).

“They’re not going to be able to disappear you like the Chinese Communist Party, like the Bolsheviks, like the Nazis, like anybody, like any of these radicals that have ever taken control of these apparatuses.”

More than $20 million worth of FJB Coin was traded in the last week of 2021, when its price suddenly jumped 400%.

Bannon’s FJB crypto has backdoor to stop your dumps

Bannon touts the Binance Smart Chain-bound token’s censorship resistance. But even if one disregards that blockchain’s blatant centralization, FJB’s code shows the token is not fit for that purpose.

Mother Jones consulted early Ethereum developer Simon de la Rouviere, who wrote the ERC-20 token specification, to review FJB’s contract.

De la Rouviere discovered whoever controls the address that issued the token (likely Bannon and Ephsteyn) wielded god-like power over addresses containing FJB; the ability to freeze and unfreeze crypto balances at will.

According to De la Rouviere, the project’s masterminds could easily exploit that function to stop users from dumping their tokens.

This, combined with forcing users into an 8% donation to the project on every transfer, could be used to scrape profit from investors.

De la Rouviere presented a scenario in which FJB’s admins restrict certain addresses from selling when FJB’s price is collapsing, giving them ample time to dump their crypto first.

Sure enough, holders in FJB’s Discord server reportedly complained that their wallets had been repeatedly locked. For some, it always happened after they had sold tokens.

Bannon floated the idea of a populist currency crypto way back in 2018.

For what it’s worth, both Bannon and Epshteyn declined Mother Jones’ request for comment on whether they’d personally offloaded their stashes as FJB briefly surged 400% in December.

The project’s operational address still controls around 45% of its total supply at press time, representing $30.5 million in market value (although it would fetch far less if sold all at once).

Bannon and Epshteyn also refused reporter quests to disclose their personal addresses, so it’s unclear exactly how much FJB supply they control beyond the primary wallet.

FJB now trades 65% below its record high less than one month ago, with around 8,650 holders overall.

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[H/T: Raw Story]