Khamzat Chimaev hasn’t been fighting for quite a while, now for around nine months…
So it might be the case that the UFC fighter needs more financial incentives to “keep afloat”.
However, it appears that the venture he opted for to do so might have ended up being a scam.
Yes – a crypto scam.
Last Tuesday, Chimaev took to social media to ask his followers about which cryptocurrency he should invest in.
The very next day, he announced the launch of his own meme coin, named SMASH:
There is one crypto coin about me. They call it SMASH.
Let’s “smash” together guys.
Let’s go.
However, those who invested in SMASH quickly saw their investments nosedive.
According to GeckoTerminal, the coin’s value plummeted by 96% within just 24 hours of Chimaev’s enthusiastic endorsement.
This decline bore all the hallmarks of a classic crypto pump-and-dump scheme.
These schemes often involve celebrities who promote a token to inflate its price, only to sell off their holdings at a peak, leaving unsuspecting investors with worthless tokens.
The cycle typically results in a severe drop or collapse in the token’s value, harming those who invested.
Blockchain detective ZachXBT quickly connected the dots, revealing that the majority of the token’s supply was dumped by “insider wallets” linked directly to Chimaev’s development team
#UFC star Khamzat Chimaev is getting exposed for pump and dumping a crypto coin and stealing millions 😳 pic.twitter.com/763VVHEKsf
— MMA UNCENSORED (@MMAUNCENSORED1) July 5, 2024
Following the backlash, Chimaev deleted his promotional video and any other traces of his involvement with the cryptocurrency scam from his social media accounts.
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