Blockchain investigator ZachXBT is warning traders to remain cautious as a new memecoin backed by rapper Soulja Boy starts gaining popularity on social media.
Jesse Pollak, co-founder of Coinbase’s Base network, faced renewed scrutiny over the weekend after he publicly shared what he called a receipt for a $1,500 purchase of Ether (ETH) that he invested into the token in a post on X.
“Why give SouljaBoy the platform to scam new people?” responded pseudonymous blockchain investigator ZachXBT, referencing an April 2023 research thread highlighting six tokens endorsed by the rapper, all of which were found to be rug pulls or abandoned soon after the endorsements.
A rug pull in crypto slang refers to a scam where developers leave the project and withdraw the capital invested by tokenholders, often just days following the token’s launch.
ZachXBT’s thread included tokens like RapDoge, Orion, The Life Token, Flokinomics, and SafeMars, labeling Soulja Boy’s endorsement of SafeMars as “the most infamous shill,” claiming that the rapper had left compensation details visible in a promotional post.
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Soulja Boy has also launched at least nine non-fungible token (NFT) collections in 2021, most of which have since been removed, either deleted from OpenSea or failing to deliver promised “utility,” according to the blockchain investigator.
ZachXBT estimated that Soulja Boy garnered about $730,000 from promotions during the 2021 bull market cycle, where he was reportedly charging $12,000 per Instagram post and $10,000 per X promotion, based on a leaked price list shared by the investigator.
The new Soulja Boy (SOULJABOY) token has struggled to gain traction. Since its launch on Friday, the token has achieved an $85,000 market capitalization and has attracted 331 total holders, according to data from the Base app.
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Soulja Boy apologizes for “paid promos,” says it was “years ago”
The rapper addressed his followers on X, stating that he has “learned a lot since then” and takes full responsibility for his previous lack of due diligence.
“I had no knowledge that a scammer named Sahil was involved or paying me to promote anything fraudulent.”
“At the time, I was doing paid promos without the understanding of the crypto/NFT space that I have now,” the rapper explained.
In February 2022, Soulja Boy and several A-list celebrities were named in a class-action lawsuit for their purported involvement in a pump-and-dump scheme related to the SafeMoon token.
According to the lawsuit, SafeMoon and its affiliates mimicked real-life Ponzi schemes by misleading investors into buying SafeMoon tokens under false pretenses of unrealistic profits.
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