Barstool Sports Founder Shills Altcoins; Calls the Crypto Market a Pump And Dump Scheme

August 19, 2020 John Altcoin 0

  • Barstool Sports founder, Dave Portnoy, extends his stay in cryptocurrency investing – shilling “shitcoins” and further promoting pump and dump schemes in the market.
  • Various top crypto influencers, including Max Keiser, have questioned Dave’s latest move, warning of the risk in investing in altcoins.

Following his meeting with the Winklevoss twins, Dave Portnoy, the poster boy of legacy day trading in the stock market, invested a reported $250,000 in Bitcoin (BTC) and an extra $300,000 in Chainlink (LINK). Now, the seasoned day trader is dipping his foot further into crypto, calling onto his 1.7 million followers to try their luck in altcoins pump and dump schemes.

In his daily live stream show, Davey Day Trade Global (DDTG), ‘El Presidente’ stated he is a “LINK marine,” saying he bought over $300,000 in LINK. This follows his $250,000 purchase of BTC from Winklevoss-owned crypto exchange, Gemini, shortly after he met with Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss.

Dave has, over time, confirmed that he does not understand Bitcoin or the crypto industry, only buying the assets to make profits. On Monday’s episode of DDGT, Dave partnered with BlockFi, a crypto custodial service, sponsoring the show that saw the Barstool Sports founder divert from his average stocks day trading to focus mainly on Bitcoin.

A Pump and Dump Scheme

Focusing his attention away from BTC and LINK, both of which have experienced massive growth since March 12 lows, Portnoy also targeted the little-known Orchid Protocol-based token, OXT. On the token, Dave asked his followers to rush in on the FOMO of the token in a pump and dump scheme after he purchased it on Gemini. Terming it a “cheaper version of BTC,” Dave said:

“I bought OXT, bitcoin OXT, it’s like a little wimpy coin, and we’re going to push OXT to the f—ing moon. That’s the next green hammer; I don’t know what it is, I’ve seen a bunch of people be like ‘buy OXT’ so I’m in on OXT. That’s a little cheap-ass bitcoin. Let’s f—ing sends it on Gemini, so buy yourself some OXT. Buy OXT, get in on it, and then get out on it. Let’s f—ing pump and dump.”

Having pumped over 224% in the past fortnight, according to Coingecko, OXT witnessed a sharp 18% fall from highs of $0.70 on Monday to $0.56, as at the time of writing.

Max Keiser, a crypto analyst in the field since 2014, drew a comparison on Dave’s pump and dump scheme to John McAfee’s actions in 2017 in a tweet on Monday. McAfee ran a section on Twitter named ‘Coin of the Day’ whereby he would shill an altcoin resulting from pumping and dumps, leaving many investors at a loss.

All in all, Dave believes in Bitcoin’s rise in the future, agreeing with the legendary hedge fund manager, Paul Tudor Jones, that the surge past $12,000 is just the start for the top cryptocurrency.

Remember always to do your research on an altcoin before blindly listening or following pump and dump schemes. Better yet, stay away from these assets.