Sports betting content creator and social media influencer Taylor Mathis has been accused of manipulating cryptocurrency markets by inflating the price of the $TAYLOR currency and selling her own shares before the price dropped.
Following the accusations, Mathis locked her X (formerly Twitter) account and removed references to herself as a DraftKings ambassador.
Who is Taylor Mathis?
The influencer rose to fame through her “Walking Bets” series, where she provides betting picks for sports events. Mathis has more than 200,000 X followers, more than 350,000 Instagram followers, and 120,000 TikTok followers.
Due to her success, Mathis was brought on as a DraftKings ambassador. While she has removed references to DraftKings in her X and Instagram bios, she still links to the sportsbook on her TikTok account.
What happened with $TAYLOR?
$TAYLOR is a cryptocurrency created by fans of the betting influencer. Mathis agreed to promote the crypto in return for 2% of the total supply, which amounted to 20 million tokens. As Mathis began advertising the cryptocurrency to her followers from Oct. 16 onwards, the price sharply increased, reaching a market cap of $6 million on Oct. 19.
Following these highs, the market cap fell below $1.5 million. Then, reports emerged that Mathis sold all her holdings in $TAYLOR, exchanging them for SOL worth around $16,350. Following this transaction, the value of $TAYLOR fell even further to a market cap below $150,000.
This would follow a “rug pull” scheme format, where someone manipulates the market by drawing attention to a crypto to drive the price up before selling their own stakes in the market to make a profit.
These actions could amount to market manipulation and may result in an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). However, there has been no formal word that the SEC is undertaking any action.
Mathis’ response
On Oct. 20, Mathis posted on X that a rug pull would be impossible without her as she owns the highest percentage of the coin. That post has since been deleted. She also posted on X following the dip that cryptocurrencies were not for her and that any profits she made from $TAYLOR would be donated to a toy fund. Those posts have also since been deleted.
another day, another celebrity crypto scam
— Plus EV Penguin ?/ seth (@PlusEVPenguin) October 24, 2024
just 3 days after saying she would never rug pull her own coin, she does exactly that for a measly 27k
glad to see @DKSportsbook only sponsors the best of the best pic.twitter.com/7MBJmdJZBH
Following this, her wallet purchased 34 million tokens for $9,000, and $TAYLOR started to rebound. Mathis herself confirmed her rebuys through a series of responses to posts on X.
Mathis released a video address on her X on Saturday, directly commenting on the $TAYLOR situation. Once the coin started dropping in value and she was facing pressure from the crypto community to boost it back up.
“I just got rid of it. I thought I was doing the right thing,” she said. “Then there was backlash because of that, so then I immediately re-got it.”
— Taylor Mathis (@TMathSports) October 26, 2024
“I have made zero dollars off of this,” the influencer claimed, and included footage of her donating to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital through SOL in the video address.
Additionally, in comments on that X post, Mathis addressed questions about mentions of iCloud hacks and threats she had received during the crypto scandal, suggesting that she did not address these rumors in the video on the advice of her agent but intended to reveal details in the future.
