UFC fighter Khamzat Chimaev has denied any involvement with the SMASH memecoin, according to his manager, Majdi Shammas. Shammas stated that he decided to promote the coin without Chimaev’s input after being approached by fans of the fighter. The statement comes after onchain sleuth ZachXBT accused the SMASH development team of attempting a pump-and-dump scheme by purchasing 78% of the coin’s supply. It should be noted that SMASH is a separate project from the privacy coin SmashCash.
Shammas apologized to Chimaev and anyone affected by the situation, expressing regret for his actions. He clarified that he only allowed the SMASH team to record a short video promoting the coin’s launch and that Chimaev was not involved in this decision. The launch of SMASH on July 2 saw a significant increase in price, rising from $0.0001147 to $0.007308 between 2 pm and 10 pm UTC, a gain of 6,271%. However, the price quickly dropped by 94% the following day, settling at $0.0004209 by 8 pm UTC on July 3, according to data from DEXScreener.
ZachXBT later revealed the results of an investigation into SMASH’s transactions, claiming that insider and dev team wallets had purchased over 78% of the coin’s supply during the launch. This type of behavior often indicates a plan to sell the tokens for profit, causing the price to crash. However, ZachXBT did not track these purchases to their destination sales.
In response to Shammas’ apology, ZachXBT argued that Chimaev’s management team had done more than just allowing a promotional video. According to the blockchain investigator, Chimaev had made two separate posts about the coin before they were deleted, contradicting Shammas’ claim.
SMASH is the latest in a series of celebrity memecoins accused of being involved in pump-and-dump scams. Other projects, such as rapper Sexyy Red’s PRESI and Andrew Tate’s DADDY, have faced similar accusations of buying up a significant portion of the coin’s supply at launch.
As the crypto market faces scrutiny, some wonder if a financial crisis could bring an end to the current bull run.