SafeMoon pump-and-dump lawsuit targets Jake Paul, Soulja Boy and others
The new proposed class action alleges that SafeMoon recruited a number of celebrities to lure investors in with misleading promotions. A new class-action lawsuit demands a jury trial against A-list celebrities and social influencers for their alleged participation in a classic pump-and-dump scheme relating to SafeMoon tokens.
SafeMoon, a BNB Chain-native cryptocurrency, allegedly recruited a number of celebrities to lure investors in with misleading promotions. Some of the prominent names roped in by the scheme include musicians such as Nick Carter, Soulja Boy, Lil Yachty and YouTubers Jake Paul and Ben Phillips.
According to the lawsuit, SafeMoon and its subsidiaries mimicked real-life Ponzi schemes by misleading investors to purchase SafeMoon tokens under the pretext of unrealistic profits. Citing the ecosystem’s “burn” and “tokenomics” as key drivers for SafeMoon’s price potential, the recruited celebrities allegedly convinced their followers to invest in the token. Furthermore, the lawsuit points out numerous instances where the recruited celebrities successfully hyped the token enough to artificially increase the trading volume and price. While SafeMoon witnessed multifold growth over several months, the sudden departure of the company’s C-suite executives was when the token prices started plummeting, as evidenced by the graph below (marked in yellow):
The lawsuit alleges a “slow rug pull” attempt from the involved celebrities, implying a slow sell-off of holdings as the trading volume from retail investors remains inflated: “The Promoter Defendants’ improper promotional activities generated the trading volume needed for all the Defendants to offload their SAFEMOON Tokens onto unsuspecting investors.”
Drafted by plaintiffs Bill Merewhuader, Christopher Polite and Tim Viane, the lawsuit looks to represent and compensate all individuals who bought SafeMoon tokens since March 8, 2021, and were victims of the alleged rug pull attempt.
One of the biggest highlights of Super Bowl 2022 was the crypto commercials. Amid the craze around the advertisements, crypto exchange Binance launched a marketing campaign to warn investors against the incoming crypto hype fueled by mainstream celebrities. As Cointelegraph reported, Binance’s ultimate aim with this campaign was to direct new users to its own platform and the educational crypto primer tools on its website.
Top Cryptocurrencies with Price Predictions
| # | Crypto | Prediction | Accuracy | CVIX | Price | 24h | 7d | Market Cap | 7d price change | |
| 1 |  BTC |
Bitcoin predictions | 91.6% | 8 | $37 999.52 | 0.28% | 1.60% | $743 176 326 003 |  |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 |  ETH |
Ethereum predictions | 84.4% | 28 | $2 087.03 | 2.47% | 0.76% | $250 940 118 733 |  |
|
| 3 |  USDT |
Tether predictions | 95.6% | 1 | $1.000108 | 0% | -0.01% | $89 361 383 812 |  |
|
| 4 |  BNB |
Binance Coin predictions | 84.8% | 26 | $229.00 | 0.60% | -2.63% | $34 738 394 358 |  |
|
| 5 |  XRP |
XRP predictions | 77.6% | 34 | $0.610895 | 0.45% | -2.05% | $32 920 250 746 |  |
|
| 6 |  SOL |
Solana predictions | 61.6% | 81 | $60.80 | 1.23% | 6.16% | $25 782 778 428 |  |
|
| 7 |  USDC |
USD Coin predictions | 96% | 1 | $1.000068 | 0.01% | 0% | $24 548 544 676 |  |
|
| 8 |  ADA |
Cardano predictions | 78% | 44 | $0.380539 | -0.17% | -3.44% | $13 436 086 955 |  |
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| 9 |  DOGE |
Dogecoin predictions | 78.8% | 45 | $0.083736 | 2.84% | 8.64% | $11 894 668 878 |  |
|
| 10 |  STETH |
Lido stETH predictions | 92.4% | 1 | $2 941.39 | -0.40% | -3.32% | $10 258 752 564 |  |
|
| 11 |  TRX |
TRON predictions | 85.6% | 21 | $0.103684 | -0.04% | 1.38% | $9 179 973 425 |  |
|
| 12 |  WTRX |
Wrapped TRON predictions | 86% | 24 | $0.102241 | -0.94% | 0.07% | $9 052 152 442 |  |
|
| 13 |  TON |
Toncoin predictions | 82.4% | 28 | $2.43 | -0.65% | -0.25% | $8 323 116 435 |  |
|
| 14 |  LINK |
Chainlink predictions | 70.4% | 55 | $14.57 | 0.24% | 0.77% | $8 110 917 522 |  |
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| 15 |  AVAX |
Avalanche predictions | 56% | 90 | $22.06 | 3.37% | 6.67% | $8 056 357 288 |  |
