Two influencers are believed to have profited from pump-and-dump schemes by combining conspiracy theories, hatred of existing institutions, and a belief in cryptocurrency.
Two QAnon-affiliated conspiracy theorist influencers allegedly caused millions of dollars in losses to their followers by executing a cryptocurrency pump-and-dump scheme.
To generate hype and enhance the price of the portfolio, the pair allegedly urged their thousands of followers to invest in a portfolio of cryptos, offering a false combination of conspiracy and actual content, as well as claims about institutions backing the tokens.
Logically, a group of data scientists and technologists is investigating the allegations. It was revealed that two influencers controlling the Telegram channels “WhipLash347” and the “Quantum Stellar Initiative” (QSI) collaborated to promote lists of Stellar (XLM) altcoins flagged as fraudulent by the Stellar network.
WhipLash347 has 277,000 followers on Telegram, whereas QSI has 35,000. They allegedly promised their supporters that cryptocurrencies will prosper because they had access to classified military intelligence.
According to the journal, the two combined conspiratorial content and misinformation to target those who distrust major financial and media institutions to provide legitimacy to the cryptocurrency they pushed. According to Logically, one man committed suicide after losing $100,000 in the fraud.
PatriotQakes, a user, runs the QSI main channel, which has several regional affiliates. Ownership of the WhipLash347 account is thought to have changed hands recently due to altered behavior.
Rocky Morningside, a former admin of the QSI group, told Logically that he feels “without a doubt that WhipLash347, PatriotQakes, and QSI are scam artists” who were advocating “pump and dumps.”
Neither entity has openly accepted or denied the allegations.
A former “Cutter” investor in one of the schemes now runs a Twitter account dedicated to exposing WhipLash347. He told Cointelegraph that he belongs to a Telegram channel with 3000 other angry investors and that the guy behind WhipLash347 is:
“He’s created a huge list of cryptos with now dead domains, as well as bogus white papers claiming to be affiliated with real companies. We’ve talked to so many of the coins’ real creators that he mimics through copycat assets who have to continually tell people WhipLash is full of shit.”
WhipLash, according to Cutter, builds trust with his followers by sharing similar political views, and he perpetuates the fraud by suggesting “upcoming events” will cause the value of the assets to increase.
According to Cutter, WhipLash reacted to the claims by stating that all information is protected by non-disclosure agreements and that anyone associated with the assets is not permitted to speak until the “event.”
“There’s always a timeline, but when the dates pass and nothing happens, he creates new timelines. It’s never-ending.”
He also claimed to be in contact with persons such as Elon Musk, and that the crypto-friendly billionaire supports the cryptocurrency WhipLash promotes.
Cutter stated that anyone who raises concerns gets booted out of the group.
“Anyone who questions his narrative is removed from his Telegram group, and he continues to rinse and repeat among his followers. As people exit, new people join. It needs to stop.”
