- American rapper Soulja Boy is facing renewed public criticism from the analytics firm Bubblemaps over his history of paid crypto and NFT promotions that allegedly collapsed.
- The rapper issued a public apology, claiming he ran past promotions without understanding the market or knowing a promoter linked to fraudulent schemes (Sahil Arora) was involved, a defense critics have largely dismissed.
- The controversy is magnified by prior allegations from investigator ZachXBT linking Soulja Boy to 73 crypto and 16 NFT projects flagged as scams, and by a Base network co-founder appearing to amplify a new Soulja Boy-linked memecoin.
American rapper Soulja Boy is facing backlash again for his history of paid crypto and NFT promotions, after on-chain analytics firm Bubblemaps publicly criticised him and resurfaced allegations of repeated involvement in token campaigns that later collapsed.
Soulja Boy’s immediate response was a public apology on X. He said he ran paid promotions in the past without understanding the crypto and NFT market, and that he did not know a well-known memecoin promoter, Sahil Arora, was involved or paying him to push anything fraudulent.
He apologised to people who lost money and framed it as a lesson learned, while also admitting he did not do enough due diligence at the time. But the apology didn’t change public sentiment, because critics interpret it as a standard “I didn’t know” defense rather than a substantive explanation of what happened.
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Full Backlash
Bubblemaps rejected the explanation and framed his conduct as cyclical. In a sarcastic timeline, it alleged he promoted numerous tokens during the 2021 peak, profited while prices later fell to near-zero, left the sector, then returned years later to launch memecoins via PumpFun that also went to zero.
Bubblemaps also said that after it highlighted these claims, Soulja Boy blocked the platform’s X account, then attempted to distance himself by attributing responsibility to Arora while continuing to associate with new crypto initiatives, including activity on Coinbase’s Base network.
The current backlash draws on earlier reporting from blockchain investigator ZachXBT. In 2023, ZachXBT alleged Soulja Boy was connected to 73 crypto promotions and 16 NFT projects later flagged as scams, and claimed the promotions generated more than US$730,000 (AU$1,116,900) in compensation during the period reviewed. ZachXBT has again warned traders to be cautious as a new Soulja Boy-linked memecoin circulates on social media.
The controversy expanded after Jesse Pollak, a co-founder of Base, posted what he described as proof of a US$1,500 (AU$2,295) Ether purchase used to buy the token, prompting ZachXBT to question why a major network figure would amplify a promoter with that track record.
ZachXBT’s prior thread cited several endorsed tokens that he said were later abandoned or became “rug pulls,” a scam where insiders withdraw liquidity and leave holders with near-worthless tokens.
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