YouTube star Olajide Olayinka Williams Olatunji, more commonly known as “KSI,” faces pump-and-dump allegations from crypto investigators ZachXBT and Coffeezilla after reopening his old crypto-focused X account.
On Feb. 14, KSI revived his old account on X, where he used to talk about crypto token investments. The internet celebrity shared a post, testing the waters of the crypto-focused account with about 371,000 followers.
A few hours later, crypto investigator ZachXBT commented on KSI’s post, saying that the YouTuber would start “sharing garbage again.” The crypto detective followed up his reply by sharing a screenshot of KSI posting about his investment in the watch-to-earn project XCAD Network (XCAD). This was paired with another screen grab of KSI’s crypto wallet dumping $850,000 in XCAD tokens
ZachXBT also shared other examples of KSI posting about tokens and selling them afterward. In 2021, he said KSI posted that he was “bullish” on the nonfungible token (NFT)-focused project Ethernity Chain (ERN). But hours later, blockchain data showed that KSI sold about $350,000 in ERN tokens.
YouTuber Stephen “Coffeezilla” Findeisen published a follow-up video sharing KSI’s statements on the issue. According to KSI, he’s still holding some XCAD tokens, and he still “fully believes” in the project and the ability to earn from watching content. The YouTuber explained that he sold XCAD to invest in the now-collapsed Terra Luna Classic (LUNC), formerly LUNA.
The internet celebrity further explained that he “didn’t have any malicious intent in trying to scam” and said that he was new to crypto and was excited. Attempting to explain the posts and the selling that followed, KSI said that every time he tweeted something, the opposite would occur, and that’s why he decided to “tweet the opposite” of what he “was actually doing.”
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However, Coffeezilla argued that KSI publicly saying one thing and then privately doing the opposite is the “definition of a pump and dump.” Whether it is successful or not, Coffeezilla argued that what KSI did was a pump and dump. “I don’t really buy that he had no clue that tweeting one thing would positively affect the price in his favor.”
KSI is also close friends and business partners with fellow YouTuber Logan Paul, who also faces crypto-related controversy. Paul is involved in a class-action lawsuit related to the sales of an NFT collection called CryptoZoo that promised to release a play-to-earn game that was never launched. On Jan. 5, Paul promised to refund investors if they waive current or future legal claims against the celebrity.
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