American rapper Juaquin James Malphurs, better known as Waka Flocka Flame, launched his FLOCKA cryptocurrency on June 17. Almost immediately after, insider trading allegations followed.

Suspicious transaction activity was raised involving a wallet that acquired roughly 40% of the coin’s supply and dispersed it to multiple wallets shortly after launch.

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Suspected insider activity

ZachXBT, a well-known blockchain investigator, highlighted the suspicious wallet activity in an X post shortly after FLOCKA launched. 

He revealed that the wallet address had been used to swiftly distribute around 40% of the coin’s supply to various addresses — suggesting deliberate market manipulation.

“Interesting how a fresh wallet funded via exchange sniped ~40% of the supply and dispersed to alt wallets.”

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Celeb coin conga line

Bubblemaps, an onchain visual analytical platform, also commented on the launch, citing “huge insider activity” after 40% of the supply was “sniped” before Flame’s announcement.

Speaking with Cointelegraph, Bubblemap CEO, Nicolas Vaiman, criticized the trend of celebrities manifesting in the crypto space:

 “Many former celebrities are trying to get a second life by jumping into crypto. Most of the time, they show a clear lack of knowledge about crypto while also being very suspicious on-chain.”

He noted that at 8 am CET, one wallet held 40% of the supply, only to distribute that across 60 wallets just 30 minutes later.

“This is no accident.”

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Flame’s questionable history

ZachXBT noted Flame’s previous involvement in promoting dubious crypto projects and undisclosed paid promotions on Ethereum in 2021 and 2022.

Flame disclosed on an X space that he had been “studying crypto since 2001,” despite the modern concept of cryptocurrencies not being created with Bitcoin in 2008.

One X user highlighted that Flame didn’t post the contract address for FLOCKA until the coin’s market cap hit “$5MM,” questioning whether crypto influencers “bark or ansem” were responsible.

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