Crypto promoter Sahil Arora faces backlash over fake Iggy Azalea token presale
Sahil Arora raised $380,000 in the presale of IGGY token claiming it was Iggy Azalea’s official cryptocurrency.
Funds from the presale wallet are being moved, with no tokens airdropped to investors.
Investors demand refunds and accountability as IGGY token value drops by 98%.
Celebrity crypto promoter Sahil Arora has come under fire after allegedly taking $380,000 in presale funds for a token falsely claimed to be endorsed by Australian rapper Iggy Azalea. Despite promising an airdrop of the “IGGY” token, presale participants are still waiting to receive their tokens.
Recent transactions indicate Arora is moving funds out of the presale wallet, sparking outrage among investors who demand refunds and accountability.
The rise and fall of the IGGY token
In May, Sahil Arora, a well-known figure in the celebrity crypto coin space, launched a presale for a new token purportedly associated with Iggy Azalea.
Arora had previously found success with tokens linked to celebrities like Caitlyn Jenner and Rich the Kid, making his IGGY token presale an attractive investment for many.
The presale quickly amassed $380,000 as investors hoped to capitalize on the anticipated hype.
However, the excitement was short-lived. Iggy Azalea publicly denounced Arora and distanced herself from the token, launching her official cryptocurrency, MOTHER, on Pump.fun which saw substantial success with a $15 million market cap within 30 minutes.
In contrast, the IGGY token, which momentarily peaked at just under a $5 million market cap, lost its momentum and plummeted in value.
Iggy Azelea has pulled off a successful stealth memecoin launch 🤯
About 2.5 hours ago a token named $iggy launched, briefly spiked to $4-$5M then sold off.
At the same time a token named $MOTHER launched.
Iggy tweeted it out about 30 minutes ago & it has soared to a $15M mc pic.twitter.com/GexTU81rSZ
— TylerD 🧙♂️ (@Tyler_Did_It) May 29, 2024
Presale participants soon realized that they had not received their promised IGGY tokens.
Despite Arora’s claims that all presale buyers had been “taken care of,” multiple investors reported that they had not received any tokens or refunds.
Arora’s justification for moving funds between wallets as “shuffling” only added to the confusion and frustration among investors.
Token presale funds on the move: where’s the money going?
As the IGGY token controversy grew, attention shifted to the presale wallet’s activity.
Significant movements of Solana (SOL) began in early June, with transactions sending large amounts of SOL to various wallets and centralized exchanges.
On June 8, approximately 663 SOL (worth around $89,800) was transferred to a wallet, which then sent a similar amount to Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange globally.
Such transfers typically precede the conversion of crypto assets to fiat currency.
Further scrutiny revealed that over 2,296 SOL (around $311,000) had been moved from the presale wallet over the past month.
These transactions included transfers to intermediary wallets, centralized exchanges, and the launch of new tokens on Pump.fun, a platform that facilitates the creation of meme coins. Despite these activities, presale participants continued to wait for their IGGY tokens, leading to growing suspicions of fraud.
Investors’ frustrations is evident on social media, with many calling for Arora to face legal consequences. Some are even demanding his deportation from Dubai, where he is currently based.
The value of the IGGY token has since plummeted by nearly 98% from its all-time high, rendering it almost worthless. Meanwhile, Azalea’s official Mother Iggy (MOTHER) token has also dropped by 55% over the past month.
Sahil Arora is linked to several other celebrity token debacles
Interestingly, the IGGY token was not the first celebrity token to be launched by Sahil Arora. It seems he has been exploiting celebrities’ lack of experience with web3 by launching scam tokens backed by celebrities.
Earlier, Arora hacked American rapper “Rich the Kid’s” X account and launched and promoted a cryptocurrency dubbed “RICH” token.
Later on, Arora hijacked the account American media personality Caitlyn Jenner and launched a Solana-based meme coin dubbed JENNER on Pump.fun.
Other token rug pulls orchestrated by Arora include Zumi, doll, and $SOULJA.
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