A comprehensive on-chain analysis carried out by Beosin, a prominent blockchain security and auditing firm, has shed light on a number of dubious dealings afoot in the world of the $SHELL token.
Beosin’s sleuthing has revealed what could well be potential price manipulation schemes, and they’ve connected the dots to market makers and certain addresses that seem to be linked to @myshell_ai. What’s more, Beosin Trace says these transactions were intimately tied to some very significant price swings experienced by the $SHELL token itself.
The series of large transfers of $SHELL tokens between different addresses are analyzed here. Multiple transfers to hot wallets associated with major crypto exchanges are numerous. Most of those transfers and many of the occurrences seem to be part of a coordinated effort to attack the price of the token before it is listed. This heist raises some serious questions about the market conditions leading up to the listing.
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The Suspicious Transactions Behind $SHELL’s Price Surge
One of Beosin’s most alarming findings is that more than $1 million worth of $SHELL tokens was transferred just minutes before the token was listed on Binance Spot. Beosin’s Trace report states that at 19:08:19 on February 27, 2025 (UTC+8), Address 2, linked to @myshell_ai, sent 1,538,462 $SHELL tokens to a user at a Binance address, valued at around $1 million. This transfer happened some 112 minutes before the token’s official listing on Binance Spot, and it smells a lot like a last-minute pump before the token started trading.
This suspicious transfer was not an isolated event. Between 20:19 and 20:40 (UTC+8) on the same day, Address 3 (0xf60b) and a Bitget hot wallet executed a series of transfers, moving a total of 5,829,159.2 $SHELL tokens—worth around $3.5 million—to another Binance user address.
The timing and magnitude of these transactions raise concerns about the role of market makers in potentially orchestrating these moves to drive up the token’s price before its exchange debut.
A Web of Transactions Linked to Major Exchanges
The transactions under suspicion were not restricted to just a single day. They spanned multiple days and involved numerous complex components. On February 14, 2025, the Safe Wallet identified with @myshell_ai (0x45ca) made a transfer of 500,000 $SHELL tokens to a Bitget user address (0x31034fb4a5212994f1540ab7067f721f152421ac). This transfer was in two parts: 500,000 $SHELL tokens (Ethereum) and the same amount (500,000 $SHELL tokens), but this time, in the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) version.
Now, the next day, on February 13, 2025, we find Address 3 (0xf60b) involved in different parts of a similar scheme: on this occasion, moving and then retransferring $SHELL tokens to and from various wallets such that, in the end, it appears that another 500,000 $SHELL tokens (again, both the Ethereum and BSC versions) were moved to nearly the same Bitget user address as in the earlier transaction.
Moreover, Address 3 (0xf60b) sent an incredible 5 million $SHELL tokens to 0xc606, which, in turn, transferred 2.5 million of those tokens to 0x89fe. Then, on March 11, 0x89fe deposited 612,913.95 $SHELL tokens into another Bitget user address, 0xf8706f1e4c4502b7cc5eb1b6140f6de5324e2bd4. These trades done by different addresses controlled by the same user, done right before $SHELL is listed on exchanges, make a very compelling case that these market makers were the ones that moved the price up before exchanges listed $SHELL.
1/ Beosin has released an insightful on-chain analysis of $Shell to reveal suspicious token price manipulation by market makers.
Here is an easy-to-understand thread of it👇 pic.twitter.com/49QF9vAxMn
— Beosin 🛡 Web3 Security & Compliance (@Beosin_com) March 15, 2025
Implications for the $SHELL Token and the Broader Crypto Market
Beosin’s analysis of $SHELL’s price manipulation spotlights a potentially troubling trend of market manipulation using coordinated token transfers. The actions uncovered in the report demonstrate how market makers can use their control over token movements and access to large exchanges to pump up the price of a token before its public listing.
The exposure of these dubious activities could injure the $SHELL token’s reputation and trust in the market. Even let us say that it had a beautiful rise in value following its initial exchange listings. The overall market is so jittery right now that any hint of negative news can lead to a price drop, let alone a surge in apparent token value that is based on good ol’ fashioned manipulation.
This incident additionally provokes wider worries about how vulnerable the crypto space is to market manipulation. As cryptocurrencies increasingly become part of the global financial system, the necessity for regulatory oversight and, even more so, transparency in token listings is becoming more evident. This is especially true for tokens that are associated with larger blockchain projects, where any kind of market manipulation that happens can have a larger overall effect on the crypto space.
The Role of Blockchain Auditing Firms in Enhancing Market Integrity
To counteract the increasing dangers associated with token manipulation, blockchain security companies, such as Beosin, are vital for the fortification of market integrity. Thanks to their careful, on-chain investigations, they are able to pinpoint not just dubious behaviors but also potential weaknesses that exist within the market itself. Thus, they are a big part of making the greater crypto ecosystem a safer space for all involved.
The crypto market is growing up and finding its place in the financial world. As it matures, it’s likely to attract the same level of scrutiny that traditional financial markets do—especially when it comes to possibly illegal activities like market manipulation. This week, the crypto forensic firm Beosin published a report about just how much manipulation (in terms of deceiving honest investors) still goes on in the crypto space, even as this supposedly largely lawless sector has been cleaned up a bit since last year. Beosin’s report is a good reminder that anything on a blockchain is not necessarily always above board.
To sum up, Beosin’s recent on-chain analysis shines a light on possibly illegal or unethical goings-on with the $SHELL token’s price. The analysis, part of Beosin’s ongoing coverage of intriguing tokens, underlines the importance of knowing what’s really going on with a token before, say, buying it or putting it in a DeFi protocol. Indeed, the investigation found that the people buying the $SHELL token weren’t really buying something that was worth what they were paying. And some of those people might have been using the $SHELL token to pay for something other than the right to buy that token.
Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any service.
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