Pump.fun Scam: Dubai Investor Mints $30 Million in Crypto Celebrity Pump and Dump

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As a seasoned researcher and blockchain enthusiast with over a decade of experience in the field, I find the recent events surrounding Sahil Arora and Pump.fun deeply troubling. The reported $30 million scam using celebrity tokens on this Solana-based platform is a stark reminder of the potential risks associated with unregulated crypto markets.

As an analyst, I’ve uncovered some troubling news about Sahil Arora, a Dubai-based investor, who allegedly used the Solana-based platform Pump.fun to launch celebrity tokens and defraud investors out of approximately $30 million. The strategy employed by Arora appears to be a traditional pump-and-dump scheme, where he issued celebrity tokens on the Solana memecoin platform, artificially inflating their value before quickly selling them off at a profit, leaving unsuspecting investors with significant losses.

Crypto Pump and Dumps Scam on Pump.fun

According to Bubblemaps’ reports, Sahil has amassed an astounding $30 million this year (2024) through the launch of celebrity tokens. However, many investors quickly sold these tokens after their release, causing their value to plummet to zero. Notably, the wealthy investor based in Dubai offered these tokens on Pump.fun for various celebrities like Caitlyn Jenner, Mayweather, Amber Rose, Suny Leone, Iggy Azalea, and others.

According to information from Bubblemaps, Sahil utilized Pump.fun not only as a starting point but also tapped into his vast 1.5 million Instagram followers. He then approached celebrities with an offer: a substantial fee in exchange for tweeting the contract address of a token.

Check out what it took for Sahil to convince Jason Derulo:

“would u do a tweet for $200k, my g?”

— Bubblemaps (@bubblemaps) August 14, 2024

According to Bubblemaps, Sahil stood to manage a significant share of the token inventory, swiftly selling off his assets following celebrity endorsements on social media. Notably, Sahil was transparent about his earnings generated through such strategies.

According to Bubblemaps, at least 40 cryptocurrency wallets linked to Sahil were found. It appears that for various tokens, Sahil owned a significant portion (25-40%) of the total supply across several addresses, which he later consolidated and sold off. These funds were then transferred to a primary wallet, labeled 7Ci23i82. From this main account, Sahil frequently moved funds to centralized exchanges (CEX). Bubblemaps has disclosed information about how Sahil allegedly swindled investors’ money throughout the year 2024.

He would then send funds to multiple CEX deposit

Since the beginning of the year, Sahil off ramped $26.4 million

• Jan: $3M
• Feb: $1.8M
• Mar: $3.2M
• Apr: $2.5M
• May: $4.8M
• Jun: $2.5M
• Jul: $2M
• Aug: $6.6M

Not including funds left in other addresses

— Bubblemaps (@bubblemaps) August 14, 2024

It’s worth noting that Bubblemaps stated: “Although many fans have suffered financial losses due to Sahil’s actions, his behavior resides in a legally ambiguous zone, making it challenging to take action against him. Intriguingly, even celebrities aren’t pursuing legal action against him because they share some accountability for the situation.”

Solana-based Memecoin Platform Sees Record Growth

The memecoin creation platform on Solana, Pump.fun, has reached a fresh achievement by generating a significant amount in monthly contract revenue. In the month of July alone, this platform recorded a whopping $28.73 million from its contract earnings.

Additionally, last month saw Dogecoin exceeding Ethereum‘s daily earnings, primarily due to increased memecoin activity. Earlier this week, it even recorded a new high of $5.3 million in daily transaction fees.

In a recent update, the Solana memecoin platform eliminated the $2 charge for token origination, instead passing this expense onto the initial purchaser. Consequently, there’s been a surge in token creation, accompanied by user complaints. Moreover, such a move might unintentionally stimulate individuals like Sahil Arora to create their tokens and potentially mislead genuine investors.

The system has historically faced security risks related to cryptocurrency theft, as demonstrated by an incident in May where a hacker managed to steal approximately $2 million from the Solana memecoin platform.

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2024-08-15 11:33