“The easiest way to make money is to deploy a meme coin, run it, and then sell as soon as you see [profits].”
In rug pulls or pump-and-dump schemes, bad actors create a worthless memecoin, use false or paid endorsements to promote it, and sell it as soon as the price goes up. The creators usually control a large portion of the tokens, and selling off the pile causes the price to crash.
Veteran crypto investor Kyle Chassé told the Post:
“…at least in the casino, you know that maybe 60 percent of the time the house wins. In this [crypto] casino, the house is going to win 99 percent of the time.”
Arora added:
“If you don’t get rugged by me, you’re probably going to get rugged by someone else. So, you might as well get rugged by a person with a track record of some success rather than getting rugged by a random person on the Internet.”
Pseudonymous crypto consultant Cryptony told the Post that the price of memecoins like Brocolli only goes up because of large demand after endorsements or promotions. He added:
“[In rug pulls] The rich get richer. For one person to make money, another person has to lose money. That’s where it comes from.”
Several influencers have been accused of promoting memecoins that crash in value. This includes YouTuber Paul “Ice Poseidon” Denino, Faze Kay, and Haliey “Hawk Tuah Girl” Welch.
Faze Kay was accused of promoting a token called Save the Kids that crashed. Welch, whose memecoin HAWK lost 95% of its value in minutes, however, was cleared by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of any wrongdoing, according to her manager.
