Jason Derulo is the latest in a long line of celebrities to launch a meme coin on Solana—and likewise to claim they were scammed by the notorious celebrity coin promoter, Sahil Arora. But the token fixer claims it was all part of the plan.
On Sunday, the famed R&B singer posted the address for JASON, a meme coin launched via Pump.fun. Less than seven hours later, Derulo took to Twitter to denounce Arora, claiming that the situation would be the artist’s motivation to “send this shit to the moon.”
But much as he’s done with previous coins, Arora claims that the drama was all part of the scheme. When asked why Derulo is now outing him, Arora replied, “Part of the script.” Decrypt then questioned if he devised a plan for Derulo to call him out as part of the deal. “Something like that,” Arora responded.
Derulo did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for comment.
Soon after that, Arora launched a token that he claimed was going to be officially endorsed by rapper Iggy Azalea, but it ultimately wasn’t. In a recent interview, Jenner told Rug Radio creator Mika that her manager warned Azalea’s team not to work with Arora.
More recently, rapper Lil Pump launched a token before deleting the promotion tweet, claiming that his social media manager had gone rogue after Arora offered $39,000.
Arora posted a Derulo song title—the same that Derulo later references in his promotion tweet—in the early hours of Sunday morning. Twelve hours later, the token was created. Five hours then passed before the 2010 Teen Choice Award winner posted a tweet promoting the token.
In the five minutes that followed, JASON spiked 1,515% to a market cap of $1.85 million. Then it came crashing back down to a $200,000 market cap. Some Crypto Twitter traders called Derulo out, claiming that he rugged the project.
Derulo threw his hands in the air, “Damn, Sahil got me,” he said on Twitter, almost sarcastically.
The R&B singer claimed that he was now “Ridin’ Solo,” referencing one of his early singles, and that it was now his “life’s goal” to send the token “to the moon.” In turn, the token spiked 736% to a market cap of $5 million in less than two hours.
“Jason has a percentage of [the] supply with him and [has] direct interest to pump this, he’s looking to do an Iggy on this one,” Arora explained, referencing how Azalea’s token saw the most success out of the recent batch of celebrity-launched tokens.
This is all happening while the broader crypto market is sinking. Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana have all fallen in the past 24 hours, as defunct Japanese Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox promises to finally repay creditors a decade after they lost funds.
JASON briefly dipped, but has since surged to a new all-time high price of about $0.011, pushing the token’s market cap to over $10 million at present.
