Prices of meme coin bob (BOB) slid as much as 45% on Sunday as its popular automated Twitter bot was suspended after the social media giant’s owner Elon Musk called the account a “scam.”
Twitter even suspended another automated bot called @AskTheWassie, a comic frog that operated similarly to @ExplainThisBob on Sunday.
“Promotion of scams under the guise of being a funny/helpful bot will result in suspension. Doesn’t matter how much you pay us,” Musk tweeted.
Data shows BOB prices quickly fell from $0.000031 to $0.000016 on Sunday as traders likely reacted to Twitter’s actions, reaching a market capitalization of $13 million. As such, the tokens have been in a nearly continuous slide since early May, when they reached a peak capitalization of $74 million.
The automated @ExplainThisBob account quickly went viral on Twitter in late April for its witty summaries and comedic responses to tweets. Musk once replied “I love bob” to an @ExplainThisBob in April, aiding a quick price surge at the time.
Musk has since engaged several times with the Bob bot. He tweeted as recently as June that “Once again, Bob nails it,” in response to a political discussion.
However, Musk said last week that Twitter would crack down and suspend accounts that seemed to “game its verification system” and “self-promote or advertise in a misleading way.”
Edited by Parikshit Mishra.
