PANews reported on August 15 that the blockchain data visualization platform Bubblemaps released an investigation report, revealing that Indian developer Sahil Arora made a profit of about $30 million by issuing tokens for celebrities in 2024. The report pointed out that Arora, who currently lives in Dubai, has issued tokens for many celebrities such as Mayweather, Caitlyn Jenner, Iggy Azalea, Jason Derulo, Amber Rose, Lil Pump, Davido, Sunny Leone, Bobbi Althoff, Trippie Redd, etc., but most of the projects eventually returned to zero.
Arora operates through the Pump.fun platform, using his Instagram influence and verification mark to convince celebrities to tweet about the token address for a high reward. He usually holds 25-40% of the token supply and sells it immediately after the celebrity tweets, using celebrity fans as exit liquidity. Bubblemaps found more than 40 addresses associated with Arora. Since the beginning of 2024, he has cashed out about $26.4 million, with the highest amount of cashing out in August, reaching $6.6 million. Despite causing a large number of investor losses, Arora's actions are in a legal gray area and difficult to pursue. Even the celebrities involved did not take action against him because of partial responsibility.
Bubblemaps mentioned that Sahil's first public foray into the cryptocurrency field dates back to 2017, when he founded the Vuzelaa Group in India at the age of 18 to install Bitcoin ATMs worldwide. Between 2020 and 2023, Sahil launched more than a dozen crypto projects, such as the crypto debit card ZelaaPayAE and the NFT market ZelaaNFT. Although both tokens failed, he made considerable profits and tasted the taste of quick profits.