As if that esports and YouTube money wasn’t enough
The esports and gaming crew known as FaZe Clan recently became embroiled in a cryptocurrency scheme known as ‘Save The Kids’: the premise being that people who invested would also see a portion of their proceeds go to charity. Sounds good right? Pretty much everyone is getting into crypto these days – at least this had an added, more positive incentive.
Or so it would seem. Turns out, just days into promoting the ‘altcoins‘ (basically any crypto other than Bitcoin), the value plummeted, proving to be as highly volatile as they always are. As a result, those who purchased tokens lost money by several orders of magnitude, with the price going from about a penny to a tenth of that value in just over 48 hours.
Several FaZe Clan members along with Rice Gum and Sommer Ray are being accused of pumping and dumping a crypto token known as Save The Kids
With several early investors losing out as the coin has completely tanked shortly after the “ambassadors” for the coin were announced pic.twitter.com/ywwu1M6MRj
— Jake Lucky (@JakeSucky) June 24, 2021
As one of the biggest groups of influencers in the gaming community, seemingly bolstered by a good cause, thousands of fans confidently pumped their money into this scheme. Not only did they believe that their investments were protected simply through the assurance of the FaZe Clan members endorsing it, but they thought they were doing a good deed in the process.
Unfortunately for those who got involved, their money disappeared almost overnight and it is believed that after being paid to promote the currency, the FaZe members ‘dumped their own investments’ – the allegation being that they knew it could or already was going south. As such, a number of members have been suspended or permanently removed from the team.
A statement from FaZe Clan. pic.twitter.com/HnPXpAoSYX
— FaZe Clan (@FaZeClan) July 1, 2021
Though most of the members have not put out a statement of any kind surrounding their involvement in the crypto scam, one of the most high-profile members, Kay, did take to Twitter to address the scandal.
‘FaZe Kay’ himself has been removed from the gaming group altogether and while he does admit to failing to “vet any of this” with his team, he maintains that there no “ill intent”, rather just naivety. You can see a section of his Twitter thread here:
While I’m very passionate about the crypto space, it's extremely complicated & I still have a lot to learn & I caution everyone to look closely before investing.
— Kay (@FrazierKay) June 27, 2021
The members themselves – Kay, Jarvis, Nikan and Teeqo – aren’t the only ones implicated in this alleged scam, other influencers including Rice Gum and Sommer Ray were also involved in promoting the altcoin. So, whilst thousands of their followers lost untold amounts, they still got their payment and then some from ‘shilling’ the crypto before it tanked.
This is by no means the first time we’ve seen the ‘pump and dump’ strategy deployed with altcoins, it’s becoming a shady staple of the crypto market.
Safe to say, the world of cryptocurrencies is a precariously positioned space in the market. Our very own Chris Anderson walked us through the utterly bonkers world of Bitcoin and how Elon Musk has almost single-handedly dictated its value.
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