On April 1, Juicebox content managers apparently announced that the Ethereum-based crowdfunding platform had secured a bogus $69 million funding round backed by crypto venture capital firm Paradigm.
However, it was later revealed to be an April Fool's prank, and JBX speculators suffered losses of over 20%.
JuiceBox's April Fool's Jokes
The news was reported by a post on X by the pseudonymous account Briliegh.eth, which has since been made private. In the post, JuiceBox claimed to have secured the funding round and thanked its backers and supporters for their role in reaching its goal.
“We are proud to announce $69 million in funding!” the post said. Although the investors were not named, an accompanying image featuring Paradigm strongly hinted at their involvement in the financing.
Following the announcement, JuiceBox's native token JBX soared more than 40% to $0.0043, according to data from CoinGecko. However, the celebrations did not last long, and after an hour Briliegh.eth confessed that it was all a prank. “Happy April Fools’ Day everyone!” the post exclaimed, warning speculators not to buy JBX tokens in hopes of financial gain.
The new revelation caused a drop in JBX price, with the token's value plummeting 25% to $0.0033.
The aftermath of this prank sparked a backlash from various X users. In response to a screenshot of the initial announcement shared on his X by @spreekaway, one user said, “What was supposed to be a joke here?” Meanwhile, another shouted: “Prison!”
See more Cryptocurrency April Fools' Day pranks
In a similar incident, decentralized tech stack Waves saw its price briefly rise by 5% after pseudonymous founder “Sasha” announced a fake integration with AI, but then quickly returned to previous levels. I did. Some users criticized the joke, likening it to market manipulation.
On a lighter note, on April Fool's Day, David Hoffman, a prominent Ethereum maximalist and co-organizer of Bankless, announced a fake departure from the ETH ecosystem to work with Austin Federa and Yakovenko of the Solana Foundation. Did.
Hoffman poked fun at the common criticism that Solana is not as decentralized as Ethereum, and joked about becoming the “VP of decentralization.” Given his history of defending Ethereum, this announcement amused many rather than angered him.
BitMEX Research also playfully suggested that the Grayscale Bitcoin ETF had no outflows, teasing that GBTC has experienced significant outflows in recent weeks. They later clarified in a follow-up post that the actual outflow was $303 million as of April 1st.
