A new class action lawsuit over a dodged cryptocurrency scheme has named rappers Soulja Boy, Lil Yachty, Backstreet Boy Nick Carter and more as defendants, it has been reported.
The ‘pump and dump scheme’, alleged led by company SafeMoon, is said to have roped in the celebrities to mislead, promote and sell the crypto token ‘V1′. The suit alleges that through the celebrities’ posts and endorsements the currency’s value was inflated, which meant the founder and CEO (Braden John Karony) and other SafeMoon execs had the tip to sell their holdings for a profit.
Reported by ClassAction.org, the rise of this particular SafeMoon token took off after being launched in March last year. At its height, the token hit a 875% peak just nine days after the celebrity marketing campaign kicked off.
By the end of 2021 though, the SafeMoon token had completely crashed, hitting a low of ‘$0.0000006521 per token’, equating to an 80% drop from its height. Due to the departure of a series of executives, and the company’s failure to launch a promised crypto wallet, the suit alleges the scam ‘pulled the rug’ out from its investors slowly.
“On December 31, 2021, the price of the SafeMoon Token hit a low of $0.0000006521 per token, an over 80% drop from its height during the Class Period, which it has not been able to recover,” the lawsuit reads.
“As of the filing of this Complaint, the trading volume for the SAFEMOON Token has plummeted to around only $60,000.”
An Instagram post on the official SafeMoon account from last year has addressed the wallet issue. Karony has stated that ‘the wallet launch is my utmost priority and I am committed to get you an update as soon as I can’.
Read the full post below:
The celebrities named in the lawsuit have not yet responded.
