- Sahil Arora raised $380,000 in the IGGY token pre-sale, claiming it to be Iggy Azalea’s official cryptocurrency.
- Funds from the presale wallet are being moved, and tokens are not airdropped to investors.
- Investors demanded refunds and accountability after the value of IGGY tokens fell 98%.
Sahil Arora, a prominent cryptocurrency promoter, is being accused of receiving $380,000 in pre-sale funds for a token he falsely claimed was backed by Australian rapper Iggy Azalea. Pre-sale participants were promised an airdrop of “IGGY” tokens, but are still waiting to receive them.
Recent transactions have shown Arora is withdrawing funds from pre-sale wallets, sparking anger among investors demanding refunds and accountability.
The rise and fall of the IGGY token
In May, celebrity crypto industry insider Sahil Arora launched a pre-sale for a new token that was said to have ties to Iggy Azalea.
Arora has previously had success with tokens tied to celebrities like Caitlyn Jenner and Rich The Kid, which made his IGGY token presale an attractive investment for many.
Investors were eager to capitalize on the anticipated hype, and the pre-sale quickly raised $380,000.
But the excitement didn’t last long. Iggy Azalea publicly criticized Arora and distanced herself from the token, launching MOTHER, the official cryptocurrency on Pump.fun, which became a huge success, reaching a market cap of $15 million in just 30 minutes.
On the other hand, the IGGY token, which briefly had a market cap of just under $5 million, lost its momentum and plummeted in value.
Igi Azalea has successfully launched Stealth Mimecoin. 🤯
About 2.5 hours ago the token was named as: Win After its release, it briefly soared to $4-5 million before being sold.
At the same time the token is named $Mother Released.
Iggy tweeted about it about 30 minutes ago and the revenue skyrocketed to $15 million. pic.twitter.com/GexTU81rSZ
— Tyler D 🧙♂️ (@Tyler_Did_It) May 29, 2024
Presale participants soon realized that they did not receive the promised IGGY tokens.
Despite Arora’s claims that all pre-sale buyers were “taken care of,” several investors reported never receiving any tokens or refunds.
Arora’s justification of moving funds between wallets as “shuffling” only added to the confusion and frustration among investors.
Token presale funds are on the move. Where is the money going?
As the IGGY token controversy grows, attention has turned to the activity of pre-sale wallets.
The mass movement of Solana (SOL) began in early June, with large amounts of SOL being sent to various wallets and centralized exchanges.
On June 8, approximately 663 SOL (equivalent to approximately $89,800) was transferred to the wallet, and from that wallet a similar amount was sent to Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.
These transfers are usually preceded by converting the cryptocurrency assets into fiat currency.
Upon closer inspection, we discovered that over 2,296 SOL (approximately $311,000) had been moved from the pre-sale wallet in the past month.
These transactions included transfers to intermediary wallets, centralized exchanges, and the launch of new tokens on Pump.fun, a platform that facilitates the creation of meme coins. Despite these activities, pre-sale participants continued to wait for IGGY tokens, raising suspicions of fraud.
Investors’ frustration was evident on social media, with many demanding that Arora face legal consequences. Some even called for him to be deported from Dubai, where he currently resides.
The IGGY token has since plummeted by nearly 98% from its all-time high, making it virtually worthless. Meanwhile, Azalea’s official Mother Iggy (MOTHER) token has also fallen by 55% in the past month.
Sahil Arora has been linked to several other celebrity token disasters.
Interestingly, the IGGY token was not the first celebrity token launched by Sahil Arora. He seems to have taken advantage of celebrities’ lack of experience with web3 to launch a celebrity-backed scam token.
Previously, Arora hacked American rapper “Rich the Kid’s” X account and launched and promoted a cryptocurrency called “RICH” token.
Arora then hacked into the account of American entertainment celebrity Caitlyn Jenner and launched a Solana-based meme coin called JENNER on Pump.fun.
Other iconic rug pulls curated by Arora include Zumi, doll and $SOULJA.