cryptopolitan.com
While influencers have been praising Soulja Boy for his new NFT projects, the reality is that he has become one of the most shameless promoters in the cryptocurrency space. Research shows that the rapper has been involved in 73 promotions and 16 NFT drops, many of which turned out to be scams.
Soulja Boy’s activities are supposed to adhere to FTC guidelines since he is based in the US, but he has repeatedly ignored them, resulting in charges by the SEC for Tron and a lawsuit for Safemoon.
Egregious examples of Soulja Boy’s crypto scams
Soulja Boy’s involvement in various scams has been well-documented. On July 19, 2021, he tweeted about RapDoge, encouraging people to pump the price. The project subsequently rug pulled after endorsements from other artists like Lil Yachty and Quavo.
Soulja Boy was also involved in promoting Orion and The Life Token, two projects that used cancer and suicide prevention charities as a means to pump their prices. Orion rug pulled within a month, and The Life Token was abandoned in early 2022.
Another infamous scam promoted by Soulja Boy was SaferMars, where he accidentally left compensation details in his promotional tweet. The project rug pulled shortly after, and he deleted his tweets to cover up the evidence.
In October 2021, Soulja Boy promoted Flokinomics, a scam that paid for media features and falsely claimed to be created by Elon Musk. The project’s Twitter and website were eventually deleted.
Soulja Boy was also involved in promoting ParrotsDAO, which rug pulled within 24 hours of his tweet, and he again deleted all evidence of his involvement.
In addition to promoting scams, Soulja Boy has released various NFT collections. In 2021, he created nine different collections, one of which, SouljaBoyNFT, advertised utility but now has an offline website.
In April 2023, he dropped seven new NFTs, including a 3D NFT featuring Ferrari and Nike logos, which was removed from OpenSea for IP infringement. Soulja Boy has not reimbursed buyers and continues to create more NFTs, disregarding his previous customers.
During the last crypto bull run, Soulja Boy charged up to $12,000 for Instagram promotions and $10,000 for Twitter promotions. These promotions would have earned him an estimated $730,000, plus funds from his various NFT collections.
It is clear that Soulja Boy is willing to do anything to make money, regardless of the harm it may cause his fans. Legal action has not deterred his actions, leading some to believe he should be made an example of.
America’s perception of cryptocurrency safety and reliability
A Pew Research Center study found that 88% of US residents have at least basic knowledge of cryptocurrencies, but only 24% consider investing, trading, or using digital assets to be safe and reliable.
The study also revealed differing attitudes based on demographic factors like gender, age, race, and income level. Overall, 75% of respondents were unconvinced about the safety and reliability of cryptocurrencies, with women being slightly more skeptical than men.
Investors tend to have higher trust in cryptocurrencies, with one in five being either “extremely” or “very confident” in their investments. However, the ongoing scams and controversies surrounding figures like Soulja Boy continue to damage the reputation of the crypto space.