Recently, famous individuals in the United States have sparked a trend in meme coins. Over the past week, several celebrities have launched their own meme coins, including transgender media personality Caitlyn Jenner, American celebrity Iggy Azalea, adult content creator Kazumi, as well as rap artists Rich the Kid, Davido, Trippie Redd, Lil Pump, and Moneybagg Yo. Even NBA star Paul Millsap tweeted about it today, seemingly adding to the hype of the coin launch.
However, looking at the token trends, these coins have mostly failed to sustain their initial surge after opening, exhibiting signs of “pump and dump” schemes.
Some celebrities have chosen to delete their posts and not respond, while others have claimed that their accounts were hacked and that they were not involved in any of the activities.
Evidence of the coin issuers dumping their tokens can be seen transparently on the blockchain.
Cryptocurrency analyst Cold Blooded Shiller points out that these cryptocurrency projects involving celebrities usually end up failing, resulting in a worthlessness of the tokens. Shiller angrily states that these celebrities are taking advantage of the meme coin frenzy to make quick money, which is a form of exploitation that rightfully angers people. However, cryptocurrency KOL Ansem defends these celebrities, stating that he disagrees with the idea of kicking out those celebrities who issued the tokens. According to Ansem, some celebrities were unaware and were misled by external teams responsible for managing the tokens. They genuinely care about their fans, so it is important to have discussions to help them understand the issues and avoid repeating mistakes.
However, Ansem’s promotion of these celebrity meme coins on social media has drawn criticism from blockchain detective ZachXBT. ZachXBT points out that many of these D-list celebrities who recently launched the coins have previously initiated or promoted fraudulent projects. He accuses Ansem, as a KOL, of failing to conduct thorough investigations, leading to the pollution of the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem with garbage scams.
Furthermore, the chaos surrounding these celebrity meme coins seems to indicate that they are not independently initiated by individual celebrities, but rather, there is an organization responsible for operating and managing the token issuance and promotion.
According to Cointelegraph’s report, this series of tokens is all connected to an individual named Sahi Arora, an Indian who has been involved in multiple fraud cases in the past. In the past week’s celebrity meme coin launches, there is substantial evidence pointing to Sahi Arora as the mastermind behind it. Caitlyn Jenner and Rich the Kid even directly disclosed that they were manipulated by Sahi Arora.
However, Sahi Arora himself denies these allegations and, in an interview, claims that many people have made a lot of money from his tokens. He believes that the accusations against him stem from disgruntled investors who incurred losses in their trades.
