On Wednesday night, Afrobeats superstar Davido promoted a new crypto token called “Timeless Davido” ($DAVIDO) on the Solana blockchain. Although the token’s purpose was unclear and seemed to be linked to an unknown website and Telegram group, it quickly gained attention and reached a $10 million market cap within four hours of its launch. Solana’s official Twitter account even welcomed Davido, celebrating the rapid success.
However, the excitement did not last. By Thursday morning, the value of $DAVIDO had plummeted by 90%.
This isn’t Davido’s first venture into the crypto world. In November 2021, he launched another token, $echoke, on the Binance Smart Chain, aiming to offer perks like giveaways, NFTs, and exclusive merchandise. That project quickly faded away. Davido has also faced criticism for promoting Racksterli, a Ponzi scheme that reportedly scammed users out of ₦1 billion.
With $DAVIDO, many coin holders now fear they might have been victims of a “rug pull,” where developers abandon the project and take the invested funds. A crypto expert commented, “Davido doesn’t need this kind of negative publicity. The money he made from this isn’t worth it.”
Davido’s management has not responded to requests for comments.
While some buyers of $DAVIDO did not expect a long-term investment, they hoped to see the token’s value rise for short-term profits. Instead, it appears the developers might have executed a “pump-and-dump” scheme. This involves inflating the token’s price artificially before selling off their holdings at high prices, leaving late buyers with worthless tokens.
Warnings about the token’s legitimacy began circulating on Wednesday night. Some crypto analysts noted that the wallet that created $DAVIDO had sold a large amount, cashing out $200,000 in just a few hours. One trader said, “It’s clearly a pump and dump scheme. The wallet that launched the token was dumping it while Davido was tweeting about it.”
Another crypto analysis pointed out that the creators made around $500,000 in under 24 hours, crashing the token’s price and leaving investors at a loss.
In the volatile world of crypto and meme coins, such schemes are common, but they often promise some profit to average users. Unfortunately, with $DAVIDO, it seems the developers prioritized their gain at the expense of the coin holders from the start.
