- Dave Portnoy launched, rugged, and relaunched a meme coin, sending costs crashing and traders fuming.
- “Crime season” in crypto is seeing a wave of insider buying and selling, with groups secretly sniping their very own tokens.
- Argentina’s LIBRA token scandal deepens, linking President Milei, Hayden Davis, and even Melania Trump’s token launch.
Barstool Sports activities founder Dave Portnoy simply pulled off a meme coin stunt for the ages—launching a token, rugging it, relaunching a sequel, and watching it tank 97% from its all-time excessive. All this, simply weeks after swearing he’d by no means rug traders if he ever made his personal token.
At first, Portnoy was clear—publicly linking his pockets and claiming he was “not attempting to be shady.” Crypto merchants, naturally, began monitoring each on-chain transfer he made. Then got here the GREED saga.
GREED Token Goes Growth… Then Bust
On Tuesday, Portnoy launched GREED, utilizing Gordon Gekko’s iconic “greed is nice” monologue as its theme. The token skyrocketed to a $41.5 million market cap, fueled by hype and Portnoy’s affect. He initially purchased in modestly—$4,200, then one other $1,670 as the value dipped.
“You already know who doesn’t dump? Me,” he mentioned on X Areas.
JAILSTOOLBut half an hour later, Portnoy did precisely that—promoting each single GREED token in a single swift transaction. Estimated worth? $270,000. As an alternative of holding, he instantly swapped into JAILSTOOL, a meme coin he had hyped earlier.
The end result? GREED collapsed 99% in 4 seconds, leaving traders livid.
GREED2 Fails to Catch Hearth
As backlash erupted, Portnoy did essentially the most Portnoy factor doable—he instantly launched GREED2. This one didn’t fare as nicely. It peaked at a $7 million market cap, then crumbled 90% inside hours. Apparently, his doxxed pockets by no means offered any GREED2, which raised extra questions than solutions.
And the insanity didn’t cease there. GREED abruptly rallied again, climbing to $16.75 million earlier than dropping to $4.88 million. Feeling like he may be lacking out, Portnoy purchased again in with $12,270—solely to promote half-hour later for $14,150.
“Crime Season” & Insider Buying and selling Allegations
All of that is unfolding in what crypto merchants are calling “crime season”—a interval of questionable token launches since Donald Trump debuted his personal Solana meme coin.
Hayden Davis, the CEO behind Argentina’s LIBRA token (which acquired President Javier Milei embroiled in fraud expenses), just lately admitted that insider buying and selling runs rampant in meme cash. Groups usually snipe their very own launches, and Davis even confessed to doing it himself.
In the meantime, Portnoy one way or the other acquired a $5 million refund for his LIBRA losses—courtesy of Davis. And as on-chain analytics agency Bubblemaps identified, the identical launch groups had been behind LIBRA and the MELANIA token—suggesting deep connections within the meme coin underworld.
Regardless of all this, prediction markets presently put Davis’ likelihood of being arrested this week at simply 15%. As a result of in “crime season”? Something goes.