Crypto Influencer Accused Of Memecoin Pump And Dump Scheme

According to Cointelegraph, blockchain investigator Zachary Wolk, known online as ZachXBT, has accused crypto influencer Zion “Ansem” Thomas of facilitating a series of memecoin “pump and dump” schemes. The accusations were made during a heated exchange on X on October 5, where Wolk alleged that Thomas was involved in promoting a range of low-cap Solana (SOL) memecoins to his followers. Wolk initially mentioned Thomas while discussing memecoin enthusiast Murad Mahmudov’s “Memecoin Supercycle” speech at Token 2049 last month. He accused Mahmudov of promoting coins to his followers instead of having a legitimate market edge. Mahmudov, the former CIO of Adaptive Capital, a crypto hedge fund that collapsed in March 2020, has since gained a large following on X by advocating for memecoins and sharing his top picks. “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,” Wolk stated, implicating Thomas in similar behavior. Thomas, who has over 507,000 followers on X, questioned why discussing low-cap memecoins was considered “grifting.” Wolk argued that Thomas’s influence on smaller tokens could lead his followers to lose money by chasing memecoin pumps. Thomas defended his actions by citing his promotion of Dogwifhat (WIF) at a $100,000 market cap, which later peaked at $4.8 billion in March. He claimed this was better than promoting utility-based tokens like Chainlink (LINK), which has seen a 90% decline against Bitcoin (BTC) year-to-date. Wolk countered by accusing Thomas of promoting “hundreds” of low-cap coins, including BODEN, HOBBES, ZEUS, and WYNN, as well as celebrity memecoins from pop stars Jason Derulo and Davido. Thomas responded by stating that low-cap memecoins have dominated 90% of retail mindshare in crypto over the past year, whether people like it or not. He argued that these are the tokens people want to trade. However, BODEN, a President Joe Biden-themed memecoin, is down nearly 99% from its April all-time high, and HOBBES, ZEUS, and WYNN are also down roughly 98% from their respective peaks. Memecoins have become a hotly debated topic in the crypto world over the past year. Advocates argue that these structurally worthless tokens, such as Dogecoin (DOGE), Pepe (PEPE), and WIF, offer better investment returns than utility tokens. Critics, however, claim that memecoins are fundamentally “extractive,” allowing insiders and early investors to profit at the expense of less sophisticated retail participants.