Crypto shilling has an equality problem

by Arthur · March 24, 2023

Late Tuesday, the SEC charged the might-have-been Credit Suisse suitor Justin Sun with fraud and market manipulation.

Stimulatingly, they also accused eight celebrities who had endorsed the Sun’s various crypto peeps without disclosing that they had been paid to do so (aka pulling a Kim Kardashian (no, not like that)).

In case you missed Robin’s post on the rap sheet, these celebrities were:

Lindsay Lohan, an actress
Jake Paul, a boxer/media personality
DeAndre Cortez Way (Soulja Boy), a rapper
Austin Mahone, a singer
Michele Mason (Kendra Lust), a porn star
Miles Parks McCollum (Lil Yachty), a rapper
Shaffer Smith (Ne-Yo), a singer
Aliaune Thiam (Akon), a singer

The celebrities agreed to pay a total of $400,000 to settle the charges (without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings), with the exception of Mahone and Soulja Boy (who we can only assume fled to their safe compound to escape the SEC).

Even more tantalizingly, Gensler and co.’s main allegations were accompanied by sidecar documents detailing specifically how much these celebrities were paid, and how many followers they had.

Here’s an excerpt from 36-year-old Dubai resident Lohan’s order sheet, for example:

This, in an extremely deep-fried screenshot, is the offending tweet:

The SEC notes that Tron, a company controlled by Sun, “paid Lohan $10,000 for this campaign and provided Lohan with the specific language to be included in the tweet”.

Corresponding figures are given for the others who paid up, while figures for holdouts Soulja Boy and Mahone can be found in the main complaint against Sun.

Each celebrity made a single tweet that pumped Tronix (TRX), a token issued by Tron, on February 11, 2021.

Lohan, Lust, Mahone and Yachty were paid in cash, while Akon, Paul, Boy and -Yo accepted undisclosed crypto assets as payment.

Here is the payment and the following calculations for each:

Bar chart of how much, in cash or crypto, each celebrity was paid to tweet with expensive characters

Bar chart of all the celebrities had several million strong Twitter followers showing major platforms

Interestingly for a Friday, this allows one to directly see how much, on a cost/follower basis, each of these celebrities agreed to shill for shitcoins. Alphaville’s friends at AlphaSense, who brought this to our attention, crunched the numbers.

Fans of equality, look away now.

Bar chart of SEC orders places Lohan and Lust firmly at the bottom for shilling value showing the shitcoin pay gap

Ouch. Lyst came last on the payment and the following calculations, but it is Lohan who stands out: second largest following, second lowest payout in absolute terms and per follower.

“It is truly remarkable to see women solidly at the bottom of the pay scale even when they are in alleged securities fraud cases,” says Nick Mazing of AlphaSense.

In there is a glimmer of hope, it is that at least they got paid in cash. God only knows what the others accepted.