Base’s Jesse Pollak backs Soulja Boy token as ZachXBT revives past rug pull claims

Blockchain investigator ZachXBT is urging traders to use caution as a new celebrity-backed memecoin featuring rapper Soulja Boy gains attention on social media.

Jesse Pollak, a co-founder of Coinbase’s Base network, drew fresh scrutiny over the weekend after publicly sharing what he described as a receipt showing a $1,500 purchase of Ether (ETH) that he put into the token in a post on X.

“Why give SouljaBoy the platform to scam new people,” responded pseudonymous blockchain investigator ZachXBT, referencing a research thread from April 2023, which detailed six tokens endorsed by the rapper — all of which turned out to be rug pulls or were abandoned shortly after the endorsement.

In crypto slang, a rug pull is a scam where developers abandon the project and withdraw the capital invested by tokenholders, often within days after the token’s launch.

ZachXBT’s thread cited tokens including RapDoge, Orion, The Life Token, Flokinomics and SafeMars, which he described as Soulja Boy’s “most infamous shill,” claiming the rapper left compensation details visible in a promotional post.

Source: ZachXBT

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The rapper also created at least nine non-fungible token (NFT) collections during 2021, most of which have since been deleted, removed from OpenSea, or failed to deliver the promised “utility” altogether, according to the blockchain investigator.

ZachXBT estimated that Soulja Boy earned a total of $730,000 from promotions during the 2021 bull market cycle, when the rapper was charging $12,000 per Instagram and $10,000 per X promotion, according to a leaked price list shared by the investigator.

Source: ZachXBT

The new Soulja Boy (SOULJABOY) token failed to gain much traction. Since its launch on Friday, the token has amassed a $85,000 market capitalization and received investment from 331 total holders, according to data from the Base app.

SOULJABOY/USD, all-time chart. Source: base.app

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Soulja Boy apologizes for “paid promos,” says it was “years ago”

The rapper took to X to defend himself, stating that he has “learned a lot since then,” and that he takes full responsibility for his 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 understanding the crypto/NFT space the way I do now,” the rapper added.

Source: Soulja Boy

In February 2022, Soulja Boy and a handful of other A-list celebrities were named in a class-action lawsuit for their alleged participation in the pump-and-dump scheme relating to the SafeMoon token.

According to the lawsuit, SafeMoon and its subsidiaries mimicked real-life Ponzi schemes by misleading investors to purchase SafeMoon tokens under the pretext of unrealistic profits.

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