Celebrity Crypto Pump-and-Dump Scam: Who’s The Mastermind?

Ruth Kamau

Dubai-based investor Sahil Arora has reportedly defrauded investors of $30 million through a celebrity-focused pump-and-dump scheme on the Solana-based platform Pump Fun. Arora allegedly exploited the platform to issue celebrity tokens, only to dump them after manipulating the market with celebrity endorsements.

According to estimates from Bubblemaps, Arora launched several celebrity tokens in 2024, generating an astonishing $30 million. However, many of these tokens have now plunged to zero. Arora allegedly created tokens for various celebrities, including Iggy Azalea, Caitlyn Jenner, Floyd Mayweather, Amber Rose, and Sunny Leone. The scheme involved reaching out to celebrities with promises of substantial payouts in exchange for promoting the tokens on social media platforms like Instagram.

Using his 1.5 million Instagram followers, Arora would keep a significant portion of the token supply and then sell his holdings immediately after the celebrities tweeted about the tokens, leveraging their followers as a liquidity exit strategy. Shockingly, Arora openly disclosed the profits he made from these tactics.

Bubblemaps has identified more than 40 cryptocurrency wallet addresses linked to Arora. The investor reportedly controlled 25-40% of the total supply of each token across multiple addresses before consolidating and selling the tokens. He then transferred the proceeds to a primary wallet, identified by the code 7Ci23i82, from which he regularly moved funds to centralized exchanges (CEX).

Details of Arora’s success in siphoning investors’ money into 2024 have been made public by Bubblemaps. The report also highlights the challenges in prosecuting Arora’s activities due to the legal gray area in which they reside. Despite the significant financial losses suffered by thousands of fans, legal action against Arora appears unlikely, as even the celebrities involved have not pursued him, perhaps due to shared culpability.

Pump Fun, the Solana-based memecoin platform at the center of Arora’s scheme, has reported unprecedented growth in revenue, despite the ongoing scandal. In July, the platform generated a record-breaking $28.73 million in agreement revenue, surpassing the Ethereum blockchain in daily earnings due to the surge in memecoin activity.

Earlier, the platform also achieved a new milestone by generating $5.3 million in daily fees. The recent elimination of the $2 token production charge, which shifted costs to the first buyer, has led to a significant increase in the number of tokens created. However, this move has sparked criticism and raised concerns that it may encourage further exploitation by individuals like Sahil Arora, who create deceptive tokens to defraud investors.

In May, the Solana memecoin platform suffered a security breach when a hacker compromised the network, leading to significant cryptocurrency theft. Despite these setbacks, the platform continues to thrive, underscoring the volatile and risky nature of the cryptocurrency market.

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