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- [00:01]
Progressive Insurance Ad
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- [00:31]
Candy Valentino
Welcome to the Candy Valentino show, the podcast for founders, investors and entrepreneurs where we have honest conversations about what it takes to grow your business, build more wealth and create financial freedom.
- [00:57]
Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the show. Thanks for tuning in with me today. And today's topic I want to talk about is hitting headlines everywhere. And I mean everywhere. From the BBC to Rolling Stone to Fortune, Yahoo. Finance, Forbes and every major media outlet and tv. I think I have seen this literally everywhere. And so I want to unpack what happened because I was shocked at the level of fraud that went on and how many good, well intended people lost not only money, but some of them lost their entire life savings. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, I'm going to give you a little bit of backstory on who this is involving and how this person defrauded a lot of people. So Hayley Welch is her name. She became famous while out with a friend, likely intoxicated out of a bar. She was interviewed in Nashville and was basically asked a pretty sexual question and proceeded to answer with two words, hoch to and basically became an overn sensation going viral, garnering millions and millions of millions of views. Although has had no social media presence, no experience or background. And in order to capitalize on this newfound fame, she decided to quit her job and launched a podcast. The podcast ended up being a huge success even though again, she doesn't really have any experience or expertise in anything specific. But because she went viral and garnered millions of fans overnight on all of the different platforms, she was able to pull guests like Mark Cuban and Jake Paul to name a few. And then like so many people that get famous or fame in some way, they are trying to turn that exposure in that audience into money and monetize it in some way. And basically that's what she did. She decided to do a digital coin and getting into cryptocurrency. So she launched a coin that very quickly hit 500 million market cap within hours and then suddenly lost 95% of its total overall value. This is what we call pump and dump. So what is pump and dump if you haven't heard of it? Well, basically it is an illegal Scheme that attempts or successfully boosts the price of a stock or coin or a security through fake recommendations. These recommendations are misleading or greatly exaggerated. And the predators of a pump and dump scheme have already established their position in the asset stock, coin security, whatever it may be. In this case, it's a coin. Then they will sell their positions as the hype goes up and pushes it to a higher share price. Obviously this is fraud and this practice is completely illegal based on the securities law and can lead to heavy fines. And the popularity of cryptocurrencies in these coins have really resulted in this rise of the pump and dump schemes within the industry. So back in the old days, this was done through cold calling. Now that we have social media and we have people that are becoming famous and for no reason whatsoever, selling things that they have no experience in whatsoever, now you've got these fraudsters that will go on their social media and pump the price of something and target these small little investors. So then the money floods in, pushes the value of this coin up, while the person who started in their entire team are obviously holding a lot of these coins. And then once it gets so high, they sell all of theirs and then the bottom falls out and everyone else loses their money. And that is pretty much what happened with Haley Welsh and her team. Now, she has denied allegations that her team sold any of the coins that they owned. However, when she posted on X that her team hasn't sold one token and added that no key opinion leaders were gifted free tokens, we know that she had already previously distributed freehawk tokens to some fans ahead of launch on social media. And the saddest part of this whole thing is it's not like she was targeting, you know, the crypto bros, if you will, of social media. Like she's actually targeting actual fans who were never even involved in crypto before and genuinely felt like this was something that they could invest in and literally lost their money within hours. It pushed up to just under $500 million market cap and then in 20 minutes drove down to about 60 million. This is what we call a rug pull. And the reason that I think this is so important to talk about because these meme coins have just been booming in popularity. And I know that I talk about bitcoin from time to time on the show and if you see me in the media and a lot of the interviews, I've been talking about it a good bit because we have seen this significant rise in bitcoin and Ethereum and other types of cryptocurrency. But meme coins are not the same. And so many people, especially younger generations, are investing in these meme coins because they follow certain social media influencers or they're on YouTube. But speaking of YouTube, Logan Paul, obviously one of the largest YouTubers that exist, was also accused and dealt with some legal issues by misleading fans by promoting crypto coins and investments without divulging his own financial interest in them. Kim Kardashian just got laced with over a million dollar fine because she failed to disclose that she had been paid to post about a cryptocurrency scheme called Ethereum Max. And from the looks of, we will be adding Hayley Welsh to a very long list of other people getting caught up in these types of fraud schemes.
- [06:35]
Progressive Insurance Ad
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- [06:58]
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- [08:02]
Amazon Prime Ad
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- [08:28]
Candy Valentino
And at the time of this recording, the coin's value is now not even worth a cent. 0024 to be exact. So every single person that was involved, that thought they were investing in somebody, that they followed online, have just lost all of their money. And Cointelegraph came out and reported that 80 to 90% of the supply was controlled by insiders or snipers or other entities that purchased large amounts of this coin supply at the launch, which drove up the price. And once the price got out, they sold it and the bottom fell out. Now, because this is happening back In March of 2021, it was one of the first ones, but the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is now really looking into pump and dumps and fraud. And you want to protect yourself. And if you have kids that are in the younger generations, because everybody's talking about this, you want them to understand as well what real investing is really all about. And it starts with doing research. Always make sure that if you are hearing about something, whether it's a coin, a crypto, a new investment, somebody that you're listening to a podcast, and they're starting their first business or second business or 12th business, and they're trying to build a fund and they want you to invest in that fund, remember that 97% of all of those investors investments go to zero. I'm going to say that again, 90%. Not just meme coins, but also startups and funds and real estate of people that you have not vetted or researched or understood about how exactly you're going to get a rate of return and how you're getting your money back. And when 97% of them go to zero, always make sure to do your research. Research the project, research the developers, research their track record, the community. Look for white papers, actual data, detailed explanations of exactly what this investment is going to be doing, when you're going to be getting in return. And I even want to say this one step further. There are so many ways that you can invest. There are so many ways that you can make money. From traditional stocks to ETFs, to REITs, real estate investing trusts, to owning your own real estate, to mutual funds, to cryptocurrencies and treasuries, and working with a certified financial pro or a fiduciary, there are are so many ways that are basically guaranteed. Please don't fall victim to one of these scams. Whether it's the latest business that this person is raising money, capital for a meme coin, or something else. Stick to buying what you know and always invest in what you understand. But if for any reason you ever fall victim to a scam or you suspect that you've been scammed by someone. Here's what you want to do. Number one, stop all further transactions immediately. Stop any future transactions. Do not give them any more money wherever it is listed. Number two, make sure to report the scam. So many people talk about this, but then they don't do anything about it. Make sure that you report it to any relevant regulatory authorities, online platforms, the sec. Depending on where exactly you invested in what, recovery will always be difficult. But reporting them can help prevent others from becoming victims as well. Number three, seek a lawyer. I mean, depending on the amount of money that you lost, you always want to consider seeking legal advice. And last but not least, use your voice. Share your experience, you know, warn others by expressing what happened to you on social media or in crypto communities or in investing circles like this really helps raise awareness so that it can prevent the scammers from continuing their schemes. Some people create lifestyles out of this and really just continually take advantage of new victims. So it's up to us to make sure that we shine light on it, that we talk about it, that there's no shame or guilt if you happen to fall victim to one of these crimes. It is a crime. The key is to avoid it. And how do you do that? Through research, through being a little bit skeptical of anything that is overly hyped or overly promised and being cautious with what you invest in. Remember that in this world you can make money in any vertical, any asset class. You do not need to do something that is highly risky. We know the stats and the data that building wealth is a long term play. So if you do it, do it consistently, do it often, and it's virtually guaranteed throughout your lifetime to go up, to go down. But at the end, compound interest will always win. And as always, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. All right guys, stay safe out there. Thanks for tuning in and spending this time with me today. We'll see you next time. Hey guys, thanks for tuning in to this episode. And if there was something that you loved or you had a specific takeaway, share it and tag me at Candy Valentino. And if you haven't already, grab a copy of my latest book, the 9% Edge Life Changing Secrets. To create more revenue for your business and more freedom for yourself. You can pick it up anywhere books are sold, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or your local independent store. And once you do, head over to 9% edge.com and claim $1500 in pre order bonuses, including a chance to join.
- [13:46]
Range Rover Ad
Me on this very show.
- [13:49]
Candy Valentino
Thanks so much for tuning in and spending this time with me today, guys.
- [13:51]
Range Rover Ad
We'll see you next time.
- [13:57]
Progressive Insurance Ad
Named one of the best personal finance podcasts, the Stacking Benjamin show with Joe and his friends makes financial literacy fun.
- [14:04]
Draymond Green has a podcast. He was asking Mark Cuban why, at the beginning of 2024, Cuban sold a huge part of his company.
- [14:12]
Candy Valentino
Like, did you see how much money I got?
- [14:14]
Range Rover Ad
I'm sure there's a more graceful answer.
- [14:16]
Candy Valentino
Than that, but dude, I bought it.
- [14:17]
Range Rover Ad
For 200 million and sold it for 6 billion.
- [14:21]
Progressive Insurance Ad
That much more graceful than that.
- [14:22]
Find out more by searching the Stacking Benjamins podcast wherever you listen.