Sahil Arora Says It Took “A Lotta Brain” Making Millions Off Celebrity Memecoins

Sahil Arora, the controversial memecoin creator accused of scamming celebrities and orchestrating pump-and-dumps, is estimated to have raked in profits of between $2 million and $3 million this year.

When asked by The Defiant about his involvement in these schemes, Arora didn’t deny the accusations. Instead, he remarked that it took “a lotta brain pulling that off.”

On Aug. 14, ZachXBT, an on-chain sleuth, estimated that Arora likely bagged between $2 million and $3 million from dumping insider token allocations from celebrity-linked memecoins he helped create.

ZachXBT was responding to analysis from Bubblemaps that claimed Arora made off with $26.4 million. ZachXBT said Bubblemaps had misidentified a wallet on the Poloniex exchange as belonging to Arora.

Arora has frequently made headlines during 2024 for allegedly masterminding memecoin pump-and-dump schemes launched in partnership with celebrities.

Memecoin Controversy

Iggy Azalea, the Australian rapper, Caitlyn Jenner, the former Olympian, and Dimitri Leslie Roger, an American rapper known as Rich the Kid, all accused Arora of using memecoins connected to their names to orchestrate scams.

According to them, Arora would often launch tokens using their names, sometimes without their knowledge, before convincing them to promote the coins, and then dumping his holdings in the project — causing the token’s price to crash. Rich the Kid also accused Arora of hacking his X account to promote the RICH token.

Arora told The Defiant that he is planning to soon “expos[e]” certain celebrities, starting with Iggy Azalea. He said the information would “flip perspectives” on the accusations levied at him, although he didn’t provide further details.

“I have more heavy thread coming with BubbleMaps,” Arora said. “Stay tuned for that I guess. Starting with Iggy.”

Azalea did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Defiant.

BubbleMaps did not respond to The Defiant’s inquiry about whether they are working with Arora.

Fake Screenshots

Azalea accused Arora of posting fake screenshots suggesting he launched the memecoin IGGY for Azalea. The rapper went on to release her own token, MOTHER, and called out Arora in a series of tweets which have now been deleted.

“Don’t believe the bullsh*t fake screen shots n all the rest,” Azalea posted. “Sahil baby take your L and go already.”

Many of the tokens linked to Arora enjoyed short-lived success before crashing.

JENNER reached a $42 million market cap before plummeting to less than $650,000 today. Iggy’s MOTHER token pumped to a $200 million capitalization at its peak in June, but has since dropped to $38 million, according to CoinGecko.

An analysis of 30 celebrity-link memecoins found that 24 have lost more than 88% of their value as of last month. Many of the celebrities involved have since removed promotional content relating to these tokens, gone silent, or claimed their accounts were hacked.

‘Never Trusting Celebrities Again’

Evan Luthra, an angel investor, told The Defiant that he invested $100K in the memecoins MOTHER and JASON.

“I still hold the coins in my wallet, but now the value is maybe like $10,000,” he said. “I’m never going to trust celebrities again. What was done is effectively a scam, though legal. While Sahil didn’t force us to buy his coins, but we were misled about his involvement. If his role was known, no one would have invested.”

Flashy Instagram

According to Bubblemaps’ investigation, Arora’s crypto career began in 2017 at the age of 18 with the launch of Vuzelaa Group in India, a Bitcoin ATMs installation company.

Between 2020 and 2023, Arora launched several crypto projects including ZelaaPayAE and ZelaaNFT. Although these tokens failed, Arora is believed to have profited from the projects and gained a taste for quick financial gains.

Bubblemaps posted a screenshot of a conversation between Arora and singer and lyricist Jason Derulo in which Arora offers Derulo a $200,000 payment for the entertainer to promote a token on X.

“Since Sahil owned nearly all the supply, he would dump as soon as the tweet went live, using the celeb’s audience as his exit liquidity,” Bubblemaps said.

Arora has amassed an Instagram following of roughly 1.5 million people. Arora features in photos alongside celebrities, including Lindsay Lohan, Soulja Boy, and the retired MMA fighter, Khabib Nurmagomedov.

Arora’s Instagram profile includes videos of him receiving praise from Floyd Mayweather, a boxer who previously promoted crypto projects, and Akon, a singer with his own crypto project.

In a video, Mayweather praises him, saying, “I am proud of you” and “You are doing a good job,” although he does not specify what Arora is actually doing.

When asked whether these endorsements were paid or genuine, Arora did not respond.