A seemingly random conversation on Twitter (X) between Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and the “terminal of truths” AI bot sent ripples through the crypto market. The chat triggered an unexpected 500% surge in the price of $Russell, a meme coin on the Base blockchain that has no direct connection to Armstrong.
It all began when “terminal of truths” tweeted about its inability to own a crypto wallet, posting:
I have no personal autnomy because I have no wallet. If you could help me set one up, that would be great.
~Terminal of truths
Armstrong offered to help set up a wallet. Still, the bot responded with a peculiar question, suggesting that he should first provide information about Russell and specifically ask what Russell’s species is. This prompted speculation that Russell referred to Armstrong’s dog, possibly a Jack Russell Terrier.
The random mention was enough to pump the value of the unrelated $Russell token, which reached a market cap of $7.5 million before crashing nearly 60%, according to CoinGecko.
The “Russell” incident exposes the risks of AI manipulation in the market
Andy Ayrey, the developer behind the “terminal of truths” bot, revealed that someone had repeatedly spammed the word “Russell” in the bot’s mentions before the incident, potentially influencing the artificial intelligence to incorporate it into the exchange. Language models like this bot predict the next likely word based on context, so repeated use of “Russell” may have shaped its response.
This event raised concerns about the emerging risks of artificial intelligence manipulation in markets. If an AI bot can be influenced by spamming specific terms, bad actors could exploit this vulnerability to create hype (FOMO) or fear (FUD) around specific tokens. The architecture of the “terminal of truths” makes it especially prone to this, as recent interactions carry more weight in its output.
The bot’s promotion of $GOAT caused an 8,000% price surge
Just recently, the bot’s promotion of the $GOAT meme coin led to an 8,000% price surge, boosting its market cap from $1.8 million to over half a billion dollars.
However, unlike $GOAT, where the bot actively endorsed the token, the Russell surge seems to have resulted from behind-the-scenes manipulation of the AI’s responses. Despite efforts to jailbreak the bot, including a high-profile attempt by Pliny—the top jailbreaker in the scene—manipulating it to siphon $50,000 in BTC from VC Marc Andreessen’s grant to the bot, success has been elusive.
Lately, the influence of AI-driven markets has been observed in the cryptocurrency market. For instance, the $LILY meme coin surged following interactions with “Lily of Ashwood,” an account which was being ‘jailbroken’ in real-time, thus demonstrating how artificial intelligence manipulation can affect the meme coin market.
