CoinDesk reports:
The infamous celebrity cryptocurrency promoter Sahil Arora raised $380,000 in a presale to purchase tokens of what he claimed was the official cryptocurrency of Iggy Azalea. Over a month later, funds began to leave wallets, yet participants continued to complain of receiving no tokens.
One presale participant told Decrypt, “I sent him 5 SOL ($670) across two different wallets and he just held onto it.” Another said, “I put in 3 SOL ($400) but got nothing. I’m surprised no one called him out.”
When asked about the status of the presale funds and the reasons for SOL receipts being moved, Arora told Decrypt he was just “shuffling.” However, around $100,000 worth of SOL has already been moved to centralized exchanges, potentially for sale. Arora claimed presale buyers have been “taken care of,” a claim that participants contradict, suggesting they haven’t been properly “attended to.”
But presale participants tell a different story.
Before Australian rapper Iggy Azalea launched her actual token MOTHER, Arora claimed she would release a meme coin named Iggy through him.
Sahil has been involved in launching celebrity tokens alongside figures like Caitlyn Jenner and Rich the Kid. Thus, when he requested presale funds for the upcoming IGGY token, his wallet quickly filled with $380,000. Presales for meme coins are a common strategy among creators, often resulting in disastrous outcomes for early buyers. However, periodically, early investors can reap huge returns, hence the FOMO.
Arora launched his IGGY token to little effect; post-launch on Pump.fun, its market cap was only $3 million. Pump.fun is an on-chain meme coin factory that allows anyone to easily create their own tokens. Before his token’s debut, Arora was condemned by Azalea, who launched her official token MOTHER, reaching a $26 million market cap within 24 hours.
Yet, $380,000 remains in the IGGY presale wallet.
As meme coin creators divert public attention to new ventures, funds begin to flow out. On June 8th, the wallet sent 663 SOL ($89,800) to a wallet starting with “8A9jAg,” which subsequently sent a similar amount to Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. Typically, this indicates cryptocurrency being sold for fiat currency like USD. Additionally, the presale wallet sent 70 SOL ($9,485) to another wallet (E29zE9), which then sent 93 SOL ($12,500) to Binance.
Last month, the presale wallet moved 2,296 SOL ($311,000). Some funds were transferred to different wallets, some to intermediate wallets before moving to centralized exchanges, and some SOL was used to launch new tokens on Pump.fun.
However, presale participants still haven’t received their airdropped IGGY tokens.
“I hope to see him deported to Dubai and jailed, haha, but I think that’s wishful thinking,” one presale participant told Decrypt via Twitter DM, reflecting on their lack of airdrop. “No airdrop, no refund,” they emphasized.
Even if Arora decides to airdrop tokens today, IGGY has plummeted nearly 98% from its recent all-time high shortly after launch. Meanwhile, Azalea’s official MOTHER token surged over 137% during the same period.
When asked if they now wished for airdropped tokens, another presale participant said, “I want my SOL 100% refunded.” “At the time, he still had proposals to send coins to hundreds of thousands of people, now he’s lost all representation.”
