Did MrBeast earn 10 million dollars in a crypto pump and dump?

MrBeast, aka James Stephen “Jimmy” Donaldson, hasn’t exactly had a fantastic 2024. First there were the multiple complaints and lawsuits over his ‘Beast Games’ and now he is accused online of several crypto pump and dump schemes that have earned him some 10 million dollars. Is there truth behind the story or is it yet another conspiracy theory. Let’s have a look.

Annus horribilis

For those who don’t know him, American YouTuber and influencer Mr Beast, real name James Stephen ‘Jimmy’ Donaldson, is a social media giant. He has 320 million followers on YouTube, more than 100 million on TikTok and 60 million on Instagram. We could go on, but you get the picture, the man is a household name with most millennials and Gen-Zers.

He became famous between 2017 and 2020, and then world famous ever since the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020, when his online content increasingly went viral.

Looks like @MrBeast allegedly made $10M+ backing low-cap IDO tokens, hyped by influencers like Lark Davis, CryptoBanter, & KSI.

Now, most are down 90%+ and some even rebranded after huge losses. 🧐📉 pic.twitter.com/6lQ2JbtU2x

— Professor Crypto (@profcryptotalks) October 15, 2024

However, this year is his ‘annus horribilis’ so far. Several charges were filed against the man, several female employees and contestants of his so-called ‘Beast Games’ started a class action lawsuit against both his company and Amazon (which filmed the series) and one of his fellow presenters in the videos on his YouTube channel was accused of sexually assaulting minors.

You understand that MrBeast probably can’t wait for the New Year to come and this terrible year to end.

Pump and dump

However, ever since the beginning of this week, the accusation of crypto pump and dump has been going viral as well. A Twitter account with just 2,000 followers called SomaXBT claimed last Friday that MrBeast had purchased several small altcoins at an ultra-low price, then promoted them on various media channels and cashed out at the top.

According to SomaXBT, MrBeast invested $100,000 in several smaller tokens and ultimately walked away with $10 million. A classic pump and dump setup, if it turns out to be true.

1/ An investigation into @MrBeast ,how he allegedly made $10M+ by backing low-cap IDO crypto tokens promoted by influencers like Lark Davis, CryptoBanter, KSI, and others. Many of these projects are now down over 90%, with some rebranding after major losses.

let’s dive in. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/NR9dq9ZnD2

— SomaXBT (@somaxbt) October 11, 2024

The story quickly went viral and was picked up by several crypto influencers. As MrBeast is a huge celebrity, they naturally hope for extra clicks through that ‘mention’ of the story itself.

At this time, the crypto wallet in question can indeed be linked to MrBeast, but there is no evidence that he executed the trades himself. On top of this, there has been no official response from MrBeast himself yet.