A wave of celebrity-backed memecoins hit the market between June and July this year, crashing within a month.
Sahil Arora, the alleged mastermind of these crypto scams, is suspected of profiting millions from massive fraud.
The accused is said to have manipulated token prices through celebrity endorsements and then dumped his holdings.
Arora is believed to have made a staggering $2 - $5 million by doing this.
Analyst and defi investigator Slorg recently called attention to the aftermath of the memecoin craze between June and July.
Over 30 celebrity memecoins were launched between these two months, and within thirty days, all had crashed by an average of -92%.
Crashed celebrity memecoins
According to recent reports, Sahil Arora, the alleged mastermind who started the craze with celebrities like Caitlyn Jenner, Floyd Mayweather, Jason Derulo, and Iggy Azalea, made a staggering $3 million this year alone from these scams.
While this profit for fraud might seem like a lot, Arora is currently banned on Twitter and faces several accusations of fraud and social engineering scams.
Bubblemaps was the first to call attention to this trend, claiming that Arora made around $30 million from these pump-and-dump schemes.
Bubblemaps mentioned that between 2020 and 2023, Arora launched a dozen failed crypto projects.
However, he soon turned to convincing celebrities, owning nearly all the supply of tokens, dumping as soon as said celebrity endorsed the memecoin, and using their audience as his exit liquidity.
BubbleMaps further identified over 40 addresses linked to Arora, where he typically held between 25% and 40% of the total supply for each token.
Independent blockchain investigator ZachXBT commented under BubbleMaps' post soon after to share his findings as well.
According to the crypto sleuth, Bubblemaps' initial reports contained a slight error that inflated Arora’s earnings.
Instead of the $30 million initially suggested, ZachXBT estimated that Arora’s actual earnings are closer to $2-3 million, with a maximum of $5 million.
The error in Bubblemaps' calculations occurred because the blockchain resource mistakenly identified a wallet address associated with Poloniex as one of Arora’s personal wallets.
Sahil Arora has so far been linked to several scams, including those related to celebrities and non-celebrities.
Some of the most high-profile victims include Australian rapper Iggy Azalea, Olympian Caitlyn Jenner, and American rapper Rich the Kid (AKA Dimitri Leslie Roger). These celebrities have accused Arora of using their names and brands to promote his scams, sometimes without consent, as in the case of Iggy Azalea.
Arora allegedly stood as a middleman by launching tokens, convincing celebrities to promote them with promises of quick gain, and then dumping his own holdings soon after.
Despite the ban on his accounts, Arora has yet to be deterred and is believed to be operating a Telegram and multiple Twitter accounts.
Overall, the latest incident only underscores the dangers of “free lunch” promises, especially in crypto.
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