Davido, the popular Afro-pop star, has faced criticism from the Nigerian crypto community for his management of his newly launched meme token, DAVIDO. Many believe that he may be planning to dump the token in the near future.
According to Lookonchain, Davido made a significant profit of $473,000 in just 11 hours by selling his DAVIDO memecoin after its launch on May 29. He still holds an unrealized profit of $207,000.
Davido initially received an investment of $1,275 and used $1,190 to create and launch his DAVIDO token on the platform pump.fun. He purchased 203 million DAVIDO tokens, which represents 20.3% of the total supply.
The blockchain tracking firm, Lookonchain, revealed that Davido also sent 20 million DAVIDO tokens to an address labeled as “dead1111…1111,” leaving him with 61.12 million DAVIDO tokens worth $207,000.
While Davido has remained silent on the issue, his fans and the crypto community have criticized his actions of withdrawing significant amounts of DAVIDO tokens from his stash while encouraging others to buy. Local crypto expert Rume Ophi believes that Davido could have made a more strategic move by advocating for regulatory clarity and exchange licensing in Nigeria’s crypto space instead of launching his own token. Ophi fears that Davido’s memecoin could turn into a pump-and-dump scheme, damaging the industry’s credibility and attracting scrutiny from regulatory authorities.
Cointelegraph reached out to Davido for comment but received no response at the time of publication. This move by Davido, who has a large following of potentially inexperienced cryptocurrency investors, could lead to widespread financial harm and increased regulatory pressure on legitimate players.
Some users expressed disappointment that Davido and his team did not allow the new token to gain momentum and increase in value. They believe that if Davido had handled the launch more strategically, they could have made even more profit.
This incident is not the first time Davido has been accused of dumping digital coins on his fans. In 2021, he promoted RapDoge before dumping over $300,000 on his followers.
Davido’s actions in the cryptocurrency world come at a time when celebrity-backed meme assets are gaining popularity. Iggy Azalea recently introduced her own token called MOTHER. However, these launches have been controversial and leave investors vulnerable to potential pump-and-dump schemes, resulting in financial losses.
In another related development, a leaked magazine revealed the alleged price list of celebrity meme coin ‘mastermind’ Caitlyn Jenner.