Dave Portnoy, founder of Barstool Sports, has mounted his defense in response to the growing scrutiny over his involvement with a series of memecoins schemes, particularly $GREED, which saw a dramatic price collapse hours after its launch.
Portnoy launched $GREED on Tuesday, February 18, 2025, saying it was to demonstrate the “extreme greed” he has observed in the crypto markets. According to blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain, he held 357.92 million tokens (35.79% of supply) early that day, only to sell everything in a single Ethereum transaction just hours later, netting $258,000.
The sudden sell-off sent the token’s price crashing from $0.001 to $0.00001 in just 15 minutes. One investor reportedly lost $101,000 after investing within three hours as a result.
Portnoy followed this incident with the launch of another memecoin, $GREED2. He currently holds 26.8% of its supply.
However, the rapid succession of these events has led to increased calls within the cryptocurrency community for stronger regulatory oversight of meme coins and their promoters. Some speculate it was a quick-profit strategy, given Portnoy history of high-risk meme coin trades.
“I warned people I could sell,” Portnoy stated in a February 19 X post, noting he could have profited over $1 million but waited until the price dropped 75% before selling his position for $258,000. He claims to have redirected these profits to the “#jailstool project”, another memecoin he allegedly launched, emphasizing “didn’t make a dime.”
Portnoy has gained attention following the collapse of the Libra token, which Argentine President Javier Milei initially supported. During a recent X Space, Portnoy revealed that he received $6 million in LIBRA tokens from Hayden Davis, the CEO of Kelsier Ventures, for promotional purposes.
Data from Lookonchain indicates a wallet potentially linked to Portnoy invested over $5 million in LIBRA, lost $5.3 million, and subsequently received a $5 million payment from the Libra team.
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