Youtuber MrBeast Accused of Involvement in Pump-Dump Token Scheme

According to an investigation by on-chain analyst @somaxbt, popular YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson (MrBeast) has been accused of making over $10 million by pumping and then dumping low-cap cryptocurrency tokens.

The projects mentioned include SuperFarm, Polychain Monsters, SPLYT, and Virtue Poker. The prices of these tokens plummeted significantly after MrBeast allegedly sold his holdings—an action known as “pump and dump.”

In a series of tweets on October 11, 2024, SomaXBT explained that they tracked MrBeast’s on-chain activities using a wallet address labeled on Arkham Intelligence. The analyst provided evidence that MrBeast made small investments in tokens through private deals such as IDOs (Initial DEX Offerings) to profit from them.

One notable example is SuperFarm (now SuperVerse, with ticker SUPER), which is backed by @elliotrades. According to SomaXBT, MrBeast invested $100,000 to receive 1 million SUPER tokens. After MrBeast’s investment announcement, the token’s price surged.

MrBeast invested $100,000 to receive 1 million SUPER tokens

By March 30, 2021, MrBeast allegedly transferred his SUPER tokens to a secondary wallet and sold them, earning 1,900 ETH (around $3.7 million at that time).

He later received more SUPER tokens according to the vesting schedule and sold them, making an additional $5.5 million, bringing his total earnings from this project to nearly $9 million.

SomaXBT also highlighted MrBeast’s involvement with Polychain Monsters (now Protocol Monsters, ticker PMON). MrBeast reportedly invested $25,000 for 25,000 PMON tokens. By March 31, 2021, MrBeast’s wallet transferred the PMON tokens to another wallet and sold them, earning 685 ETH (about $1.3 million). In total, this deal netted him $1.7 million.

The investigation also detailed MrBeast’s participation in SHOPX, Jigstack, and Virtue Poker, from which he allegedly earned over $2 million after dumping the tokens.

Notably, before each sale, MrBeast often commented under the project’s posts, causing the token’s price to spike. However, shortly afterward, these tokens experienced steep declines, causing significant losses for smaller investors.

Interestingly, the timing of the token crashes coincided with the moments MrBeast’s wallet sold his holdings. For instance, SUPER has dropped 75% from its peak, and PMON and SHOPX have fared even worse.

In summary, just in 2021, from five low-cap projects alone, MrBeast is estimated to have earned around $12.7 million from selling tokens. This figure is based on available data, and it’s unclear how many projects he has been involved with or how much he has profited from 2022 onwards.