Key Takeaways
- A teenage live streamer and crypto trader attempted to profit from a rug pull scheme by creating and hyping a fake meme coin called Gen Z Quant ($QUANT).
- The kid issued the token on the Solana meme coin launchpad, Pump.fun, and invested 2 SOL ($460) to purchase about 19 million QUANT. He made a staggering 2,100x return on his investment and sold his tokens for a $30,000 profit.
- He live-streamed the entire process and disrespected investors after draining liquidity from the QUANT/SOL pool and declaring the token as a rug pull.
- The crypto community joined forced to amp up the QUANT token, which soared by an astounding 71,000 in under 24 hours to trade at an all-time high and attained a market capitalization of over $80 million. The scammer’s holdings of 51 million QUANT would have been worth $4 million if he had waited long enough.
A savvy teenage crypto trader and live streamer could have netted nearly $1 million after creating and trading a fake meme coin in a rug pull scheme – a type of scam where a token’s developers abandon the project and steal investors’ funds.
Teenage Crypto Scammer Profits $30,000 Rug Pulling Fake QUANT Token
The trader created an all-new cryptocurrency called Gen Z Quant ($QUANT) through the Solana-based meme coin launchpad Pump.fun during a live stream on Wednesday, which turned out to be fraudulent. A wallet identified as “Fi2h” created the meme coin, supposedly owned by the teenager. The entire scheme was live-streamed on his channel.
According to an X post from blockchain intelligence firm Lookonchain, he spent 2 SOL, worth approximately $460, as an initial investment to buy 18.89 million QUANT before selling 3.17 million QUANT for 116 SOL ($27,000). The trader made a staggering 2,100x return within just three hours of trading the meme coin. Eventually, the scammer sold 51 million QUANT for 128 SOL, earning him a $30,000 profit.
After selling off his coins, the price of QUANT crashed, and it was quickly labeled as a rug pull. He celebrated his gains in an overtly disrespectful manner on live video, truly underestimating the power of the community.
A rug pull involves a scammer creating a fake cryptocurrency, generating significant hype for the asset, and then abruptly abandoning the project after extracting maximum funds from investors. However, despite the teenager’s attempts to execute a rug pull and collapse QUANT, the meme coin defied expectations by continuing to rally.
Crypto Community Joins Forces To Pump QUANT To ATH, Making The Scammer Miss Out On $4 Million
In response to the fraud, the meme coin community banded together and deliberately invested in the token, resulting in Quant’s value surging over 900% in less than six hours and driving its market capitalization to $1 million.
His investment of 51 million QUANT tokens would now be worth well over $4 million, leaving him ruing his decision to exit early. After QUANT, the kid went to launch two additional meme coins, LUCY and SORRY, which were also rug pull schemes that generated him 103 SOL ($24,000) profit in just a short time.
Despite his repeated efforts to crash QUANT, the token’s price kept on increasing as investors continued to invest in it.
This wasn’t the kid’s first time executing rug pulls as X user “@ibuymemecoins” pointed out that his original “rug” was from September in a meme coin called $KID.
Following his latest attempt, the crypto community took matters seriously, tracking down and exposing the teenager’s personal information, including his name, address, and school details across social media. His family was forced to lock their social media accounts to avoid further harassment.
The price of QUANT spiked by an astounding 71,000% within 24 hours, hitting a peak of $0.0223 while its market cap reached a high of $82.2 million before declining to around $21 million. Despite only having $1.4 million in liquidity on its QUANT/SOL pool, the token was used to conduct 175,412 transactions, with nearly 100,000 buyers entering the post-rug pull trade, illustrating the speculative frenzy.
Critics have expressed concerns about the broader implications the incident will have on the market. Analysts warned of systemic vulnerabilities on platforms like Pump.fun, which supports the launch of fraudulent projects with minimal oversight. The incident also serves as a stark reminder of the risks in chasing short-term profits in speculative markets and why robust regulatory frameworks and community-driven safe rails are needed to curb such schemes.
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