- Base co-founder Jesse Pollak promoted a meme token issued by rapper Soulja Boy.
- ZachXBT cited Soulja Boy’s 70+ failed crypto promotions and NFT launches.
- Historical examples include the RapDoge rug pull and the SaferMars compensation leak incident.
Base co-founder Jesse Pollak promoted and backed a meme coin issued by rapper Soulja Boy, triggering community criticism. Blockchain investigator ZachXBT questioned why the rapper was being given a platform, citing April 2023 research documenting 73 promotions and 16 NFT launches by the artist.
ZachXBT stated that many of these projects were scams. The investigator noted that Soulja Boy has been one of the worst promoters in the cryptocurrency space despite being required to follow FTC guidelines as a U.S.-based influencer.
Investigator Cites Multiple Rug Pull Examples
The research documented several examples of projects that failed after receiving promotion. On July 19, 2021, Soulja Boy posted about RapDoge, stating, “let’s pump $RAPDOGE to $.000001 and let’s get all our friends in on this.” The project’s rug was pulled hours after receiving additional promotion from Lil Yachty and Quavo.
Two projects named Orion and The Life Token used cancer and suicide prevention charities as marketing mechanisms to increase token prices. Within one month of the promotion, Orion rug pulled, and the X account was deleted. The Life Token was abandoned in early 2022.
SaferMars became one of Soulja Boy’s most infamous promotions when he accidentally left compensation details visible in the promotional tweet. The project rug pulled shortly after, and the rapper deleted tweets to remove evidence.
ZachXBT Identifies Soulja’s NFT Collections
ZachXBT identified nine NFT collections created by Soulja Boy in 2021 alone. One collection called SouljaBoyNFT advertised multiple forms of utility, but the website went offline. Research showed the rapper charged up to $12,000 for Instagram promotions and $10,000 for X posts during the last crypto bull run.
Using these figures, the promotions would have generated approximately $730,000 in additional funds from NFT collections. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Soulja Boy with Tron-related activity, and he was sued regarding his involvement with Safemoon.
Criticism centers on Pollak’s decision to promote the token despite the issuer’s documented track record. Base operates as Coinbase’s Layer 2 blockchain network launched in 2023. The platform has positioned itself as an infrastructure for bringing mainstream users into cryptocurrency.
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