Olympic gold medal winner Caitlyn Jenner appears to have launched a Pump.fun token, which sent Crypto Twitter into a meltdown. That’s led Decrypt down a rabbit hole to find the person who claims to have deployed the JENNER token on Pump.fun.
“We love crypto!” Jenner posted on Twitter followed by a Pump.fun link and a photo with Donald Trump. The JENNER token quickly made it onto decentralized exchange Raydium—a key goal for Pump.fun tokens—and is currently up 24,838% since its creation.
“I’m connected with pretty much every celebrity,” Sahil Arora told Decrypt, claiming that he deployed the JENNER token.
But questions have been raised on social media over whether he’s helping or hurting the projects he claims to be involved with. Pseudonymous Crypto Twitter sleuths claim to have found a wallet with funds they say is from alleged pump and dumps, which sold $16,000 worth of JENNER shortly after launch.
make america great again!!! 🇺🇸  and we love crypto!
@pumpdotfun 🫡 pic.twitter.com/3IDlAoaQJq— Caitlyn Jenner (@Caitlyn_Jenner) May 26, 2024
This launch looked much like many celebrity hacks of the past. Many notable figures, such as former U.S. President Barack Obama, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, and even Twitter-owner Elon Musk, have had their accounts compromised before a dodgy link to a meme coin or wallet address gets posted with a request for their followers to fork over their cash.
So Crypto Twitter was understandably wary of the JENNER token.
Caitlyn Jenner’s Twitter account went on a campaign to prove that her account hadn’t been hacked, as many believed. First, her manager Sophia Hutchins posted a video on Twitter while the former decathlon athlete said she was out golfing. This was after Jenner posted a video that many believed was a deepfake. But a second video dropped that seemed to silence most doubters.
$Jenner no deep fakes. All real crypto. $113.5M volume in just over 4 hours.
Trade here: pic.twitter.com/gyobXOddzI— Caitlyn Jenner (@Caitlyn_Jenner) May 27, 2024
This token debut happened the same day that popular crypto trader GCR was hacked, with the attacker shilling two projects before dumping. And American rapper Rich The Kid posted a Pump.fun link on Twitter before deleting the social media post.
Twitter users immediately drew connections between the Rich the Kid’s token and Caitlyn Jenner’s with one wallet being found to have bought and sold a significant amount of each token. One Twitter user believes the wallet made a 98 SOL ($16,000) profit selling Jenner tokens.
Rich The Kid then took to Twitter to point a finger at Sahil Arora.
“This is the guy in charge of these scams,” the New York rapper said in a now deleted Twitter post. It’s the same man whose Instagram story was posted by Jenner below her original Pump.fun Twitter post, in an effort to convince followers the launch wasn’t a hack. “$7M in volume in an hour. Teamwork,” the Instagram story said.
Stay tuned for the official RTK token ! 🚀 pic.twitter.com/5fvyeaM5wL
— Rich The Kid (@richthekid) May 27, 2024
Arora claimed to Decrypt via Instagram DMs that he deployed the JENNER token. He sent a screenshot of a contract with his and Caitlyn Jenner’s alleged signature, but Decrypt hasn’t yet received a comment or confirmation from Jenner’s team.
Arora told Decrypt via Instagram DMs that he’s in contact with multiple celebrities. “Sometimes I go to them, most of the time they come and I pick,” Arora said. “It’s the only way to make crypto more mainstream and benefit from the attention economy, it’s the meta they didn’t know they needed.”
He claims to have been involved with projects for other celebrities, including actress Lindsay Lohan and recording artists Soulja Boy, Tyga, NeYo, and Liam Payne. But he didn’t share any concrete verification. When questioned why he does this, he named clout, money, and authority as his motives.
Arora also said he helped launch the Rich the Kid token, RICH, but claims the rapper tried to rug pull the project. “I ditched him and had a fight,” he said to Decrypt. Rich the Kid did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for comment.
Twitter user Roxo believes that Arora is the common denominator between five apparent rug pulls linked to celebrities in the past week. They all connect back to the same wallet that made $16,000 profit on JENNER and was also allegedly posted by the official Caitlyn Jenner Twitter account asking for meme coin donations.
Arora has newly-created Telegram group, where he’s been sharing plans to launch tokens with pornstars, artists, and actors. The group had been promoting a token for Ivana Knöll, former Miss Croatia, but the social media post promoting the token has been deleted. This project is among the alleged pump and dumps. The model did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for comment.
In response to the claims made by Roxo about the Solana wallet belonging to him, Arora simply said they are “dumb bs.”
Jenner’s Twitter account has been more active than usual, promoting the project multiple times an hour. Arora claims his and Jenner’s camps are collaborating to engage with the crypto community. The account has retweeted Pump.fun, replied to Autism Capital, and reposted criticism of Rich the Kid’s token.
“This next one is gonna be crazy HUGE and will make JENNER look small,” Arora posted in his Telegram. “Stay tuned for announcements.”
Edited by Stacy Elliott.