Soulja Boy Has Reportedly Been Cranking Out Promotions for Scam NFT Projects
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Rapper-turned-crypto-enthusiast Soulja Boy has promoted dozens of crypto coins and NFT projects, some of which turned out to be scams, according to research by pseudonymous internet sleuth ZachXBT.
1/ In recent weeks influencers have given @souljaboy praise for new NFT projects in hopes of clout.
In reality he has been one of the most shameless promoters in the crypto space.
In my research I observed 73 promotions & 16 NFT drops done by him. Many of these were scams. pic.twitter.com/8xRDN79S5t— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) April 19, 2023
Best known for his 2007 hit "Crank That," Soulja Boy has in recent years expressed an interest in cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens. The rapper bragged about bitcoin gains on the 2018 track "Bitcoin" and released a 3D NFT collection earlier this month.
According to ZachXBT, Soulja Boy tweeted about various crypto projects and NFTs 73 times since March 2021. In particular, ZachXBT cites a complaint made by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in March, charging Soulja Boy and other celebrities like Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, Akon and Ne-Yo with promoting tronix (TRX) and BitTorrent (BTT) without disclosing compensation. He also pumped a now-defunct token called RAPDOGE in 2021.
ZachXBT also points to promotions of tokens like SaferMars, which turned out to be a rug pull scam. According to ZachXBT, Soulja Boy's promotions to his millions of followers across social media are estimated to have netted him over $730,000.
12/ It’s abundantly clear Soulja Boy will do anything to make money regardless of whether or not it hurts his fans. I suspect there are more examples than what I found.
I believe he should be made an example of as legal action does not seem to deter his actions. pic.twitter.com/PD9bn5sanQ— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) April 19, 2023
Soulja Boy did not immediately respond to CoinDesk for comment.
Celebrities continue to face growing scrutiny over their promotion of NFTs and other crypto tokens without proper disclosure. In 2018, boxer Floyd Mayweather and DJ Khaled reached settlements with the SEC for promoting an initial coin offering called Centra without announcing that they were paid to do so. Rapper T.I. also reached a settlement with the SEC for breaching securities laws by selling scam crypto investments, while celebrities like Kim Kardashian were sued over their promotion of infamous crypto coin EthereumMax.