Jason Derulo

Thomas

ZachXBT

Blockchain sleuth Zachary Wolk — known online as ZachXBT — slammed crypto influencer Zion “Ansem” Thomas, accusing him of facilitating a string of memecoin “pump and dumps.”
In a heated Oct. 5 <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/zachxbt/status/1842613017814438159" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">exchange</a> on X, Wolk and Thomas went back and forth over what Wolk alleged was Thomas’ role in shilling a swathe of “low cap” Solana (<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/solana-price-index" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">SOL</a>) memecoins.&nbsp;
Wolk first mentioned Thomas while discussing <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-going-to-100k-after-steady-accumulation-says-crypto-trader" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">memecoin bull</a> Murad Mahmudov’s “Memecoin Supercycle” <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nqzwdGxTGc" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">speech</a> at Token 2049 last month, accusing him of promoting coins to his followers in place of having a legitimate “edge” on the market.&nbsp;
Mahmudov was the chief information officer of Adaptive Capital, a <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-hedge-fund-goes-belly-up-after-bitcoin-price-drop-to-38k" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">crypto hedge fund that collapsed</a> in March 2020 amid a broader market downturn. He has since generated a large following on X by advocating for the role of memecoins in crypto and posting lists of his top memecoin picks.&nbsp;
“If you resort to promoting new low cap memecoins every few days to followers as a large account it’s [because] you have no edge and have to use your followers instead,” <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/zachxbt/status/1842618673174814970" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">said</a> Wolk, claiming that Thomas was also complicit in this behavior.&nbsp;
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 <img alt="Cryptocurrencies, Social Media, Solana, Memecoin" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-10/01926579-3131-7fe4-9996-79b6bc369c2d" title="">
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 Source: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/zachxbt/status/1842618673174814970" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="https://x.com/zachxbt/status/1842618673174814970">ZachXBT</a>
 </figcaption>
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Thomas asked Wolk why “talking about lowcaps” — referring to memecoins with a small market capitalization — was considered to be “grifting.”
Wolk <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/zachxbt/status/1842631001937236236" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">said</a> that Thomas — who has more than 507,000 X followers — has an outsized capacity to influence tokens with smaller valuations, which could lead followers to lose money by <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/learn/how-to-make-a-profit-from-solana-memecoins" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">chasing memecoin</a> pumps.&nbsp;
Thomas <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/blknoiz06/status/1842634848227209711" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">retorted</a> by claiming that his calling out Dogwifhat (WIF) to his followers at a $100,000 market cap — which later ran to a <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/memecoins-are-back-wif-rallies-46-in-september" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">peak value of $4.8 billion in March</a> — was much “better” than promoting a utility-based token such as Chainlink (LINK), which is down 90% against Bitcoin (<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/bitcoin-price" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" text="null" title="https://cointelegraph.com/bitcoin-price">BTC</a>) year-to-date.&nbsp;
Wolk lashed back, accusing Thomas of shilling “hundreds” of low-cap coins, including BODEN, HOBBES, ZEUS, and WYNN, as well as <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/celebrity-memecoins-crypto-influencer" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">several celebrity memecoins</a>, including those from pop stars Jason Derulo and Davido.
<figure>
 <img alt="Cryptocurrencies, Social Media, Solana, Memecoin" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-10/0192658b-3c41-7481-9c8d-27dfa78f7778" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 Source: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/zachxbt/status/1842618673174814970" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">ZachXBT</a>
 </figcaption>
</figure>
“The ‘low cap garbage’ you talk about has dominated 90% of retail mindshare in crypto over the past year,” Thomas retorted. “Whether you like it or not that’s what [people] want to trade.”
BODEN, a President Joe Biden-themed memecoin, is down almost 99% from its April all-time high, while the likes of HOBBES, ZEUS, and WYNN are also all down about 98% from their respective all-time highs.&nbsp;
<figure>
 <img alt="Cryptocurrencies, Social Media, Solana, Memecoin" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-10/01926577-2f84-72f4-b41d-e2a2e9aae2eb" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 BODEN is down 98.9% from its all-time high market cap of $1.04 billion in April. Source: CoinGecko
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Related: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/every-meme-coin-rug-pull-works-mark-cuban" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">‘Every meme coin is a rug pull in the works’ — Mark Cuban</a>
Memecoins have become one of crypto’s <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/meme-coins-play-important-role-in-crypto%5C" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">most hotly debated topics</a> over the last year.&nbsp;
Memecoin advocates say structurally worthless tokens, such as Dogecoin (DOGE), Pepe (PEPE) and WIF, are a better class of investment than utility tokens due to their relatively outsized returns so far this cycle.&nbsp;
Critics say that <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/debate-continues-memecoins-positive-destructive-crypto" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">memecoins are fundamentally “extractive,”</a> allowing insiders and early investors to make vast sums of money off less sophisticated retail participants and then disappear with the profits.&nbsp;
Magazine: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/meme-coins-betrayal-crypto-ideals-or-true-purpose/" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">Memecoins: Betrayal of crypto’s ideals… or its true purpose?</a>

ZachXBT accuses crypto influencer Ansem of promoting memecoin ‘pump and dumps’

Cointelegraph

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