A gloating teenage crypto trader was doxxed yesterday after making more than $50,000 from dumping tokens on Pump Fun. 

The 15-year-old known as Griffin created QUANT and used $348 worth of Solana (SOL) to purchase 51 million tokens before selling them for $29,953.

Not only that, he livestreamed the entire rug pull, telling viewers, “Holy fuck thanks for the 20 bandos” before freaking out, drooling, and then sticking his middle fingers up at the camera. 

Read more: Pump.fun dev literally eats ass to pump shitcoin on livestream

Lookonchain reports that Griffin subsequently created another two tokens called LUCY and SORRY. Despite the SORRY token appearing to be an attempt at an apology for his previous scheme, he proceeded to dump his holdings again, making a further $24,000.    

However, despite his more-than-$50,000 profit, Griffin has seemingly missed out on an even bigger bag. His already-sold QUANT holdings were reportedly worth $4 million this morning after the token picked up in popularity. It now has a 24-hour volume of $280 million.

Hundreds of crypto-focused accounts have shared the news of the stunt with some claiming that Griffin’s school and family were doxxed. Some even shared pictures from his mother’s Instagram account. 

Indeed, one user’s screen recording shows the young trader with his mother on his 14th birthday last March.

Links to his family’s Instagram accounts are also all over Pump Fun, and disgruntled traders and trolls have been spamming his mother.

One comment reads, “Your son stole my fucking money.” The Instagram accounts are private at the time of writing. 

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The post ‘Thanks for the 20 bandos!’ Teen behind QUANT rug pull misses out on $4M profit appeared first on Protos.

There was something different about the way that Keith Gill (aka RoaringKitty on YouTube or DeepFuckingValue on Reddit) used to shill GameStop. He’d do in-depth, long, and extensive live streams and videos sharing his thesis, always instructed that people should reflect on their personal financial situation before buying or selling shares, and generally told followers to take profit when they wanted to.

Gill was also quite active on YouTube and Reddit, where he’d show his own portfolio so people knew whether or not he was adding to or subtracting from positions.

But since he’s returned from his social media hiatus, which started with a meme about AMC stock that well-known pump and dumper Zack Morris had used a few days before, the public has witnessed a huge departure from this approach.

This time, Roaring Kitty isn’t sharing his theses or his portfolio positions, nor is he explaining why he likes certain stocks or live streaming for five hours at a time. Instead, he’s shitposting memes, clearly advocating for GameStop as a great buy (despite his previous thesis failing miserably), and basically pumping a stock for no clear reason.

RoaringKitty is no longer a thesis-driven trader — he’s another average pump-and-dumper with a large audience.

Read more: Andrew Tate seems confused as he dumps bitcoin to buy GameStop

Disappointing Kitty

There are any number of reasons that Gill could give to justify his posting of dozens of vague memes posted from his X (formerly Twitter) account, now boasting over a million followers.

For instance, it’s fair to say that since 2021, when meme stocks first became a concept and Gabe Plotkin blew up his fund, Melvin Capital, very little has changed in the finance world — particularly in regard to the issues that caused RobinHood to shutter all buying of certain stocks and the complexities of capital requirements.

Unfortunately, there is no Gabe Plotkin, Steve Cohen, Vlad Tenev, or Ken Griffin to frame up as the stereotypical villain. No evil VCs or hedgies are openly discussing shorting GameStop, short interest is nowhere near levels seen in 2021, and GameStop is little more than a company walking the thin line between failing business and bankruptcy protection.

Revisiting old Gill live streams and videos, you can listen to his thesis: GameStop will be the Amazon of gaming, it’s apparently going to build a massive digital marketplace, NFTs will play an important role, and locations are important so gamers can trade in old games and buy physical copies.

Needless to say, none of these theories panned out. Indeed, GameStop has closed 200+ stores in three years, it’s not making money, and Cohen has been a terrible CEO.

A new beginning for Roaring Kitty

Am I surprised that Roaring Kitty’s valiant return is to shitpost and pump and dump? Of course not. I imagine that the desire to take the easy road is almost impossible to resist when you know that one single tweet can move a stock 50%+.

I’m not sure how many individuals could stop themselves from doing so, especially if a win was almost guaranteed. But it is disappointing to see someone who spent years proudly shilling his investment the right way to turn around and immediately give in to his every whim.

I don’t know what’s next for Keith Gill, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Gary Gensler ask him more questions and scour his tweets for any possible way in which he broke rules and regulations.

I’m not sure what happened to Gill but he’s certainly not the same. Not only that, the new version of him isn’t as interesting, doesn’t have nearly as much to say, and, let’s face it, is a shadow of the hopeful figure he once presented for retail traders.

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The post Opinion: Roaring Kitty looks to have returned as a pump-and-dumper appeared first on Protos.

A-list celeb Kim Kardashian will have to fork over $1.26 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after she was charged with unlawfully shilling a dodgy crypto token to her more than 200 million Instagram followers.

Last year, Kardashian joined the likes of Jake Paul and Floyd Mayweather Jr in promoting a crypto asset called EMAX when she gushed to her followers: “Are you guys into crypto???? This is not financial advice but sharing what my friends just told me about the Ethereum Max token!”

She followed up with: “A few minutes ago Ethereum Max burned 400 trillion tokens — literally 50% of their admin wallet giving back to the entire E-Max community.”

This may have sounded great at the time to some, however, earlier this year, the token was shown to be just another pump and dump.

Kim’s promotion of EMAX failed to properly disclose her involvement with the project, specifically a payment of $250,000 from EthereumMax, the token’s provider.

Her punishments, announced today, include:

• A three-year ban on promoting any crypto assets,
• A $1,000,000 penalty, 
• $260,000 in disgorgement.

Officials said: “Investors are entitled to know whether the publicity of a security is unbiased, and Ms. Kardashian failed to disclose this information.”

Read more: Crypto investor wants Kim Kardashian in court over pump and dump

EMAX looked remarkably similar to Safemoon

EMAX closely resembled SafeMoon, a similar token that’s been embroiled in its own controversies, including a $12 million pump and dump scheme perpetrated by a famous YouTuber. After the celebrity promotions, EMAX pumped by more than 1,000% before shedding more than 99% of its original value. 

It’s alleged that Ethereum max co-founders, Giovanni Perone and Steve Gentile, unloaded their personal holdings of EMAX before it collapsed to turn a handsome profit.

For more informed news, follow us on Twitter and Google News or listen to our investigative podcast Innovated: Blockchain City.

The post No more crypto promos for Kim Kardashian, rules SEC appeared first on Protos.

British YouTuber Ben Phillips has been exposed in a video by fellow YouTuber CoffeeZilla for running a $12 million SafeMoon pump and dump scheme to his millions of followers.

On April 12 last year, Phillips shared his wallet address in a Tweet requesting fans pay for his Starbucks. This gave internet detective Coffeezilla the chance to follow up on a tip he’d received as part of a wider investigation into the controversial ponzi game token SafeMoon.

According to CoffeeZilla’s calculations, Phillips bought SafeMoon on PancakeSwap for $4 million between March and December last year and sold for $16 million in the same time period — leaving a tidy $12 million profit.

In a series of now-deleted tweets pumping the coin, the British YouTuber conveyed to his followers he would hold onto his bags. “Well I’m HOLDING,” Phillips posted on April 6, as well as another saying “I feel bad for anyone who sold AGAIN!” That day, he cashed out around $721,000 in tokens.

Phillips rose to fame on now-deceased social platform Vine and then on YouTube with his staged “Sorry Bro” series where he’d play tricks on his brother. He currently has 4.61 million subscribers on the video streaming site and almost 750,000 followers on Twitter.

Read more: FBI ties and Ponzi games — here’s what SafeMoon doesn’t want you to know

CoffeeZilla, or Stephen Findeisen, is known for uncovering the shady crypto dealings of celebrities such as Post Malone and The Weeknd and members of popular esports brand FaZe, among others.

Findeisen revealed in his video and corresponding document that Phillips was handed trillions of SafeMoon tokens for his work as part of the shitcoin’s marketing team. Phillips shilled the shitcoin to his millions of followers but never disclosed that he was getting paid to do so. He reportedly received a total of 5.2 trillion tokens for his work.

As Protos reported, former SafeMoon chief operating officer Jack Haines-Davies also managed Phillips from November 2017 until March 2021. Haines-Davies resigned from the project in September 2021, citing the need to remove himself from toxic environments.

Some influencers lost out with SafeMoon

SafeMoon practically reached meme coin status last year. The Binance smart chain token was sold with the promise of a self-generating liquidity pool; investors would receive more tokens for staking.

The team behind the crypto has recruited many influencers to shill it such as YouTuber Jake Paul, rapper Soulja Boy, and Barstool Sport’s Dave Portnoy. 

However, Portnoy hasn’t managed his SafeMoon holdings as profitably as Phillips. Just this week he held an “emergency press conference” about how he lost 90% on his $40,000 investment.

Read more: FaZe talent manager took 20% cut for brokering crypto pump and dumps

Indeed, SafeMoon has suffered a fall from grace. Shortly after listing, it reached a $4 billion market cap. Today, it’s more like $300 million.

The coin reached its peak in April last year at just over a millionth of a penny ($0.000011). Right now, it’s sitting at less than a billionth of a penny.

As for its two million holders, according to CoinMarketCap around 656,000 wallets are currently holding SafeMoon.

Follow us on Twitter for more informed news.

Out now: the first four episodes of our ongoing investigative podcast series Innovated: Blockchain City.

Edit 10:08 UTC, Apr 16: Corrected number of wallets holding SafeMoon in final paragraph.

The post YouTuber Ben Phillips made $12M from SafeMoon crypto pump and dump scheme appeared first on Protos.

Kim Kardashian, Floyd Mayweather, and the Boston Celtics’ Paul Pierce could all be heading for court after a New York-based crypto investor accused them of playing part in the EthereumMax pump and dump.

As reported by Law360, Ryan Huegerich filed a class action in a California court, alleging that the team behind EthereumMax leveraged “trusted celebrities” to promote and artificially inflate the price of EMAX tokens in May and June last year.

Huegerich claims co-founders Giovanni Perone and Steve Gentile talked up the power of EthereumMax’s “tokenomics,” a catch-all term how cryptocurrencies incentivize investors and reward holders.

The project was effectively a clone of crypto-powered Ponzi game SafeMoon. It penalized token holders for actually using their crypto and promised to burn supply — a bid to project value through rising scarcity (it didn’t work).

Once they’d attracted enough buyers, Perone and Gentile allegedly offloaded their personal holdings to starstruck followers.

“The promoter defendants’ improper promotional activities generated the trading volume needed for all the defendants to offload their EMAX tokens onto unsuspecting investors,” said Huegrich.

“While plaintiff and class members were buying the inappropriately promoted EMAX tokens, defendants were able to, and did, sell their EMAX tokens during the relevant period for substantial profits.”

Huegerich is hoping to represent hundreds of investors who bought into EMAX between May 14 and June 17 last year.

Almost $600 million worth of EMAX was traded between those dates, according to CoinGecko. The price also briefly surged up to 1,000% before collapsing nearly 99%.

Kim Kardashian asks Instagram fans: ‘Are you into crypto?’

Judging by the effect Mayweather and Pierce’s messages had on EMAX’s price, the team’s strategy certainly appears to have worked.

Pierce began shilling EMAX just weeks after he was fired by ESPN for posting a video to his Instagram account in which he’s seen drinking, smoking marijuana, and cavorting with strippers.

At the same time, EthereumMax announced that it would be the only crypto boxing fans could use to buy tickets for the upcoming Floyd Mayweather vs. Logan Paul fight.

However, by the time Kardashian advertised the shoddy token on Instagram in mid-June, EMAX had already lost much of its lustre.

“Are you guys into crypto?” she asked her 250 million Instagram followers.

“This is not financial advice but sharing what my friends just told me about the Ethereum Max token,” Kardashian continued, before boasting that EMAX had just burned 400 trillion tokens without context.

[Read more: Kim Kardashian shilling EthereumMax warned us crypto would collapse]

Unfortunately for the reality star-turned-business mogul (and anybody she reeled in), EMAX bombed nearly 70% in the days following her message. It’s now practically worthless.

But if the class action succeeds in bringing Mayweather to justice, it would be the boxing superstar’s second run-in for illegally touting cryptocurrencies.

In November 2018, the SEC charged Mayweather and professional hypeman DJ Khaled with spruiking failed crypto project Centra Tech without disclosing they’d been paid, charges they settled.

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