Memecoin

ZachXBT

UFC fighter Khamzat Chimaev “wasn’t involved” with the SMASH memecoin and “[knows] just as little as you do,” Chimaev’s manager, Majdi Shammas, said in a July 7 X post. Shammas claimed he had decided to promote the coin without the fighter’s input after “[he] was approached by a group claiming to be fans” of Chimaev.
The statement comes a few days after onchain sleuth ZachXBT accused the SMASH development team of <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/khamzat-chimaev-smash-crypto-insider-trading-concerns">buying up 78% of the coin’s supply</a> in an apparent attempt to perform a pump-and-dump. 
Memecoin SMASH is a separate project from privacy coin SmashCash, which uses the same ticker symbol.
In the post, Shammas apologized to the fighter and “all others of you affected by this, if I could have done anything differently.” He stated that he only allowed the SMASH team “to record a short video promoting their launch [...] nothing more, nothing less” and that Chimaev “wasn’t involved” with even this decision.
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 <img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-07/80d383c0-a874-4a5c-9469-45cc37266df0.png" alt="Khamzat Chimaev ‘wasn’t involved’ with SMASH memecoin — Manager" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 Source: <a href="https://x.com/MajdiShammas/status/1809874030104604892" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">Majdi Shammas</a>
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SMASH was launched at 2 pm UTC on July 2. From 6 to 10 pm on launch day, it <a href="https://dexscreener.com/solana/tfpwudzfjj6xuzpc3hswg2ijh38zmaf53xsrrsya9qa" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">rose</a> from a price of $0.0001147 to $0.007308, a gain of 6,271%. After peaking, it fell by 94% over the next day, settling at $0.0004209 by 8 pm UTC on July 3, according to data from DEXScreener.
Related: <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/celebrity-tokens-impact-web3">Are celebrity tokens good or bad for Web3? Execs weigh in</a>
On July 4, blockchain investigator ZachXBT <a href="https://x.com/zachxbt/status/1808802979098866024" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">announced</a> the results of an investigation into the coin’s transactions. He claimed that over 78% of the coin’s supply had been purchased by “insider and dev team wallets” at launch. 
A development team buying a large number of tokens at launch often means it plans to sell the tokens for a profit later, crashing the price in the process. ZachXBT claimed that he did not trace these purchases all the way to their destination sales, stating that he “stopped tracking” after the initial token purchases.
On July 8, ZachXBT responded to Shammas’ apology, arguing that Chimaev’s management team did more than simply allow a promotional video to be made. “Khamzat did two separate posts about the coin before they were deleted,” the blockchain investigator stated, adding, “So your story of nothing more, nothing less does not add up entirely.”
<figure data-ct-non-breakable="true">
 <img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-07/fbffb132-059b-4727-858c-6992bed331f7.png" alt="Khamzat Chimaev ‘wasn’t involved’ with SMASH memecoin — Manager" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 Source: <a href="https://x.com/zachxbt/status/1810060198595465299" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">ZachXBT</a>
 </figcaption>
</figure>
SMASH is the latest of many celebrity memecoins to be accused of being pump-and-dump scams. On July 2, rapper Sexyy Red’s PRESI project came under fire when its team was accused of <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/rapper-sexyy-red-team-bought-90-percent-presi-token-zachxbt">buying up 90% of the coin’s supply</a> at launch. On June 13, Andrew Tate’s DADDY project was also <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/andrew-tate-daddy-memecoin-allegations-insider-activity">accused of buying up 30% of the supply</a> at launch.
Magazine:&nbsp;<a href="https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/financial-crisis-end-crypto-bull-run/">Could a financial crisis end crypto’s bull run?</a>

Khamzat Chimaev ‘wasn’t involved’ with SMASH memecoin — Manager

Cointelegraph

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