Argentinian president Javier Milei promotes memecoin that then crashes 95% in apparent $100 million+ rug pull

Portrait of Javier MileiPortrait of Javier Milei (attribution)
A tweet from Argentina's president Javier Milei promoted a memecoin called Libra, which he described as a "private project [that] will [be] dedicated to encouraging the growth of the Argentine economy by funding small Argentine businesses and startups". The token quickly soared in price as traders poured in.

However, within hours of the launch, insiders began selling off their holdings of the token. The token had been highly concentrated among insiders, with around 82% of the token held in a small cluster of apparently insider addresses. Those insiders cashed out around $107 million, crashing the token price by around 95%.

After the crash, Milei deleted his tweet promoting the project. He later claimed he was "not aware of the details of the project and after having become aware of it I decided not to continue spreading the word (that is why I deleted the tweet)."

AlleyCat project developer takes presale money to fund gambling habit

The creator of the AlleyCat Solana-based cryptocurrency project has reportedly taken about 600 SOL (~$130,000) raised during the project's presale and transferred it to gambling platforms including Sportsbet.io and Bitcasino. Although the project raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in presale funds, stating it was needed for token liquidity on launch, only 18 SOL (~$11,000) was ever used for liquidity.

Altogether, around $827,000 has passed through the AlleyCat creator's Sportsbet.io account in seven months. Crypto scam-spotting account Rug Pull Finder has alleged that the AlleyCat creator is also behind other rugpulls.

The AlleyCat cryptocurrency project is based on the 1983 Atari game of the same name, though the crypto project does not appear to have any affiliation with (or approval from) the game's creators.

DogWifTools rugpuller tool rug pulls the rugpullers

A message from the DogWifTools attackers, containing a picture of a person with clown mask on. Text reads: DogWifTools Breach

Hello, this is our one and only statement about the DogWifTools breach.

We are a group of individuals. We specifically targeted scammers in the crypto market who were using tools to gain an unfair advantage over innocent, day-to-day traders.DogWifTools message (attribution)
A suite of software tools called DogWifTools was popular among memecoin creators looking to rug pull unsuspecting traders. By helping token creators mask supply control and fake trading activity, the tool was used to convince outside traders that a token had potential — at least, up until the token creator pulled the rug out from under them.

However, poor security by the software developers allowed attackers to ship a remote access trojan (RAT) along with the DogWifTools release. Once the package was downloaded, the trojan began scanning infected devices for crypto private keys, login information, and other sensitive data. Attackers even used scans of identification documents taken from their targets' computers to create Binance accounts.

Ultimately, around $10 million was stolen from would-be scammers. Along with the virus, the people who compromised DogWifTools left an angry note on infected machines: "Solana is a fucking joke and a scam from the beginning, it was designed for criminals by criminals! As a result, we have confiscated all your crypto, because you deserved it! You people who use automated tools to run these scam tokens are fucking disgusting to us. It's about time you got fucked over for once. Solana is nothing more than a shitty platform that enables scammers and rug pullers to steal from innocent users."

They also launched an onion website containing a message: "We specifically targeted scammers in the crypto market who were using tools to gain an unfair advantage over innocent, day-to-day traders. ... We believe it was morally correct to confiscate money that was not rightfully theirs." They added that they would soon be publishing the user data they stole on the scammers.

Students for Trump co-founder Ryan Fournier admits to rugpulling memecoin while trying to deny rugpulling memecoin

Tweet thread:

Roll Tide @2ndshotpro
Jan 19
bro you rugged the shit 🤣

Ryan Fournier @RyanAFournier
Jan 19
I’m very new to crypto and I promise you I didn’t rug it.

node @ibuybottom
Jan 19
Buddy, we see your wallet. It’s all on-chain.

Ryan Fournier @RyanAFournier
I literally sold because it was going down increasingly. I don’t know who wouldn’t do that.Tweet thread with Ryan Fournier (attribution)
Ryan Fournier, a co-founder of the Students for Trump organization, worked with a memecoin creator to create a $TIKTOK memecoin, which he said was intended to celebrate TikTok lifting its brief restriction on US users amid an impending ban. The token quickly increased in price amid early attention. However, when the price began to drop, Fournier dumped 505 million TIKTOK for around $700,000 in SOL.

Fournier posted on Twitter, claiming he was scammed by his collaborator. When accused of rugging the token, Fournier replied "I'm very new to crypto and I promise you I didn’t rug it." "Buddy, we see your wallet. It’s all on-chain," replied another person. Fournier, apparently not knowing he was describing a rug pull, wrote: "I literally sold because it was going down increasingly. I don’t know who wouldn’t do that."

Two NFT fraudsters charged for rug pulls amounting to over $22 million

An illustration of a person with green skin and a face shaped like a square-cut gem. They're wearing a white bandana, sunglasses with dollar sign patterns, and a prison uniform, and they have a party horn in their mouth.Vault of Gems #2509 (attribution)
Gabriel Hay and Gavin Mayo, two LA-based NFT creators, have been charged for defrauding investors of more than $22.4 million through a series of NFT rug pulls and other crypto scams. The duo launched various projects with detailed and false roadmaps to lure NFT buyers, then abandoned the projects without following through.

For example, a "Vault of Gems" NFT project falsely claimed to be the "first NFT pegged to a hard asset, like jewelry", which would have its own exchange. A "Faceless" NFT project promised to produce comic books, a movie, and a clothing company. None of the promises ever materialized, and Hay and Mayo abandoned the projects soon after launching them.

Hay and Mayo worked to hide their involvement with their scams, and have been charged with harassment for attempting to threaten those who connected them. In one case, after a person revealed Hay and Mayo to be the ones behind the Faceless NFT project, the duo sent threatening emails and text messages to the man and his parents. In an email to his parents, they impersonated a law firm, and even threatened to make false sexual abuse claims against the man.

13-year-old rug pulls crypto token, then faces retaliation

A 13-year-old known as the "Gen Z Quant kid," created a token called QUANT and executed a rug pull, making $30,000. In retaliation, various people in the cryptocurrency world executed a "revenge pump" — pumping up the price of the token after the kid cashed out, causing him to miss out on potential gains. Worse, they then found the child's identity, and published his address and the school he attended. They also identified his mother, and began leaving hateful comments on her Instagram account. Rumors also emerged that a member of the cryptocurrency community dognapped the child's dog, then launched a memecoin based on the animal.

Sharpei memecoin rug pulls for $3.4 million

A dog-themed memecoin project called Sharpei abruptly cashed out $3.4 million, tanking the token price by more than 96% in seconds. The project had been promoted by crypto influencers, but hit a snag when a pitch deck for the project leaked. The deck contained multiple lies, including claims to have hired multiple "KOLs" who later denied involvement, and false claims of partnerships with various platforms and projects.

As the token price stuttered along with these revelations, insiders apparently decided to quit while they were ahead, and cashed out in a quick and coordinated sale.

AssangeDAO accused of rug pull after transferring treasury to German foundation

Julian AssangeJulian Assange (attribution)
AssangeDAO was a project created to fundraise for the legal defense of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been fighting espionage and computer intrusion charges for over a decade, and who was imprisoned in the United Kingdom for several years. The DAO raised around $55 million, and when Assange reached a plea deal and was sentenced to time serve, around $10 million remained.

This $10 million was later sent to a German non-profit foundation called the Wau Holland Foundation, which has also been fundraising and managing funds relating to Assange's legal defense. However, this transfer raised serious concerns among some members of the DAO who say they've effectively been cut out of decisionmaking, that the funds were transferred without their approval, and allege the treasury was mismanaged and crashed in value as a result.

Hacktivist, bitcoin core developer, and AssangeDAO organizer Amir Taaki accused fellow AssangeDAO organizer: "Harry Halpin you should be honest and direct with the people here. You believe the money should be kept in a foundation controlled by your people with Julian. You do not respect the community or believe in the DAO."

Friend.tech team abandons project

The development team behind friend.tech has officially ditched the crypto-based social media project, which was (very) briefly hailed as a potential platform for influencers to earn money from their followers. It attracted crypto influencers, OnlyFans models, and a handful of more mainstream notables. Friend.tech received undisclosed seed funding from the crypto venture capital firm Paradigm.

The project spiked in popularity when it launched in August 2023, but interest rapidly dwindled. A token launched in May 2024 also suffered a mostly downward trajectory. On September 7, the team reassigned ownership and admin rights to the smart contracts to the burn address, making them permanently inaccessible.

Some denounced the project as a Ponzi scheme (repeating accusations it has received since its inception, based on its incentive structure). Others accused the development team of rug pulling and not delivering on their promises — accusations that intensified as one co-founder deleted his Twitter account and the other set his to private. The team is estimated to have made around $44 to $60 million in fees.

Trump-themed $DJT token rug-pulls, people blame Martin Shkreli or Barron Trump

A chart showing the sudden crash of the $DJT token price from around $0.0055 to around $0.0004$DJT chart showing the August 6 crash (attribution)
Surprising just about no one, a wallet holding around 20% of the supply of the $DJT Trump-themed memecoin suddenly dumped its holdings, crashing the token price by around 90%. The token price had briefly spiked in June, when it was falsely reported that the token was "an official Trump token". However, the token's price had already dwindled since that time, and before the sudden dump.

People were quick to blame those behind the project, primarily "Pharma Bro" Martin Shkreli (who has been accused of dumping his own token before). Shkreli was quick to shift the blame to Donald Trump's youngest son, Barron, who he has also claimed is behind the token (although this has not been independently confirmed). However, the owner of the wallet that dumped its tokens is not definitively known.

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