Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy introduced a meme coin named $GREED from his official wallet today, only to sell his entire stake an hour later, causing the token’s value to drop by over 90%.
### A Social Experiment
On February 19, the founder posted on X, criticizing the meme coin space by saying, “The entire ecosystem is Greed and nothing else. Go dump on each other peasants but don’t complain to me if you lose money. You are all greedy. At least admit it.” He launched $GREED as a social experiment, highlighting the sector’s inherent nature. Blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain reported that Portnoy issued the token and bought 357.92 million units, which was 35.79% of the total supply, and its market capitalization quickly rose to $30 million. Despite initially stating he wouldn’t sell soon, Portnoy sold his entire position in a single transaction within an hour, leading to a 99% value drop of $GREED.
Lookonchain noted that he made an approximate profit of $258,000 from the meme coin. Shortly thereafter, Portnoy introduced another token, GREED2, and currently holds 268.25 million of them, accounting for 26.8% of the total supply. In a subsequent post on X, he clarified that his promise not to sell applied only to the Solana meme token, Stool Prisondente (JAILSTOOL), and that he was free to sell other assets. Earlier, he disclosed purchasing 57.16 million JAILSTOOL tokens on February 9, later selling the entire amount for about 586 SOL. However, he soon repurchased more, spending over 1,000 SOL to acquire just over 23 million coins. After an initial spike and dip, JAILSTOOL’s market cap surged past $100 million, with its value more than doubling to nearly $218 million. Currently, this meme cryptocurrency trades around $0.0158, reflecting a 19.1% drop in the past 24 hours and a 77.3% decrease over the past week.
### Meme Token Controversy
Portnoy’s actions with GREED coincide with a scandal in the meme coin space, especially around the LIBRA token. Promoted by Argentine President Javier Milei, LIBRA’s market cap rapidly hit $4.4 billion before a significant crash, giving rise to reports of insider trading and market manipulation, with some reportedly cashing out over $100 million. Alen Cohen, founder of Pump.fun, criticized LIBRA’s launch, advocating for meme coin creation to be decentralized and free from developer or market maker control. He cautioned that the incident exposed vulnerabilities in the crypto sector, where bad actors exploit investors. Meanwhile, Ben Chow, co-founder of Meteora, resigned amid financial misconduct allegations linked to the situation.
Portnoy’s recent actions with meme coins highlight ongoing controversies and the volatile nature of the crypto market.
