Lil Yachty, Soulja Boy, and Jake Paul involved in cryptocurrency scheme

Soulja Boy, Lil Yachty and others are implicated in a SafeMoon pump-and-dump lawsuit.

The Binance Smart Chain-native cryptocurrency “SafeMoon” has been accused of recruiting the services of a number of celebrities, including Soulja Boy, Lil Yachty, and Jake Paul, in order to boost income through fraudulent promotions.

Celebrities and social media influencers are accused of manipulating the value of the ‘SafeMoon' cryptocurrency by promoting it on various social media platforms.

A 60-page complaint concerning the SafeMoon token names the rappers among the defendants.

On February 17, 2022, the lawsuit was filed in California's Central District Court.

Lil Yachty, Soulja Boy, and Jake Paul aren't the first rappers to be named in cryptocurrency-related cases.

T.I. was sued but found not guilty in connection with the advertising of the FLiK Token. The rapper ended up paying the SEC $75,000 in a settlement.

A lawsuit regarding the so-called Paragon currency ended in a defeat for the West Coast rapper ‘The Game‘. A judge ordered the rapper to pay $12 million in damages for advertising the company's PRG Coin in July of 2021.

Jessica VerSteeg, model and reality TV star, and her husband, Russian entrepreneur Egor Lavrov, launched Paragon. The two have subsequently vanished.

Class action lawsuit names Safemoon, its executives, Jake Paul, Nick Carter, and others in an alleged pump-and-dump scheme.

“A class-action suit was filed against SafeMoon, various executives, and a handful of influencers and celebrities who promoted the token. The plaintiffs allege that promotions included false or misleading statements and that the defendants misrepresented their control over SafeMoon and its token in what is commonly called a ‘Pump and Dump'.

In addition to SafeMoon and its executives, the lawsuits named various celebrities and influencers who had promoted the token to their followers: Jake Paul, Nick Carter, Soulja Boy, Ben Phillips, and Lil Yachty.

Promotions by the influencers occurred primarily between March and May 2021 and helped the coin spike to its all-time highs of about $0.000008. However, the coin has spent most of its history worth less than half or, more lately, a quarter of that amount.

The token underwent a migration in early 2022, which increased the price per token, but the value has continued to decrease.

These influencers join a growing list of celebrities who have been named in class-action suits over alleged pump-and-dumps. The list includes names like Kim Kardashian, who was named among others in a January class action suit pertaining to a coin called ElthereumMAX.”

According to the lawsuit claim, ‘SafeMoon' and its affiliates replicated a pyramid scheme by tricking investors into purchasing SafeMoon tokens on the promise of excessive profits.

According to reports, the recruited celebrities influenced their fans to buy ‘SafeMoon' tokens by saying that the ecosystem's ‘burn' and ‘Tokenomics' would drive the token's price upward.

The complaint cites multiple occasions in which the hired celebrities were effective in trying to increase the token's stock price and value.

SafeMoon experienced multifold increases over a couple of months, but its token value decreased due to the abrupt departures of its top executives.

The lawsuit states that the price of the SafeMoon Token fell to $0.0000006521 per token on December 31, 2021, representing an almost 80% drop from its peak during the Class Period, from which it has not been able to recover.

The complaint, filed by plaintiffs Bill Merewhuader, Christopher Polite, and Tim Viane, seeks to represent and recompense anyone who purchased SafeMoon tokens and who were victims of the claimed rug pull operation.

SafeMoon token investors have suffered economic harm because their investments have lost value since March 8, 2021.

“Stop listening to celebrities for financial advice”, warns the Binance Super Bowl commercial.

The crypto advertisements were one of the main attractions of Super Bowl 2022. In the midst of the media storm around the ads, crypto exchange Binance started a publicity campaign to caution investors about the impending crypto-mania generated by popular celebrities.

Binance's ultimate goal with this campaign, according to Cointelegraph, was to lead new users to its platform as well as the instructional crypto primer services on its website.