Original Author: Fairy, ChainCatcher
Original Editor: TB, ChainCatcher
Another trading scandal has come to light, this time involving Crypto Beast.
With nearly 800,000 followers, this major KOL promotes tokens while simultaneously driving up prices, selling off, and harvesting profits.
On July 14, the token Altcoin (ALT) heavily promoted by Crypto Beast plummeted from $0.19 to $0.003, evaporating nearly $190 million in market value within just a few hours. 45 wallets associated with him simultaneously sold off, cashing out over $11 million in total.
This article will review the complete process of this harvesting event and reveal the truth behind the manipulation.
ALT Crash: The Manipulation Maze of Crypto Beast
From soaring to crashing in just five days. On July 9, Crypto Beast began intensive promotion of ALT on X and Telegram. He described the token as "the next hundredfold coin" and "a potential billion-dollar market cap," creating a gradual price increase while continuously generating market FOMO.
On July 12, the price increase accelerated significantly; in just two days, $ALT surged from $0.039 to $0.19, nearly quadrupling and attracting more retail investors.
On July 14, the harvesting officially began. Within just four hours, $ALT plummeted to $0.003, a drop of 94%, nearly reaching zero.
Image Source: coingecko
On-chain detective ZachXBT conducted an in-depth investigation, unraveling the entire manipulation through a wallet address previously disclosed by Crypto Beast.
This wallet was initially funded through an instant exchange platform. ZachXBT further analyzed the flow of funds over time, ultimately tracing it to a key Celestia address:
celestia1chflqywwp0k8rjzgp3w4447fquyk9ynnc6zws5
The investigation revealed that this address sent small amounts of funds to multiple instant exchange platforms (such as KuCoin Nested, SideShift, Binance Nested, HTX Nested, etc.) between May and July 2025 to fund "side wallets."
These side wallets were not unrelated accounts but rather a "bundled wallet cluster" confirmed by ZachXBT through on-chain analysis. They simultaneously sold $ALT on July 14, cashing out over $11 million in total.
Below is the table of instant exchange transactions identified through time analysis from Celestia to Solana:
In addition to the 45+ wallets highly tied to Crypto Beast's funds, there was an independent "sniper cluster" that sold over $2.6 million, which had connections to the $ALT deployers. However, in terms of influence and scale of funds, Crypto Beast seems to be the main character.
Currently, there are still multiple wallets associated with Crypto Beast holding over 89 million $ALT, accounting for about 10% of the total supply. After the incident, Crypto Beast deleted the tweets promoting ALT and deactivated his X account.
ZachXBT pointed out that this is not the first time Crypto Beast has operated in this manner; he has used a similar "bundled pump and dump" model in several previous projects, including $ALPHA, $RICH, $YE, $RUG, $ACE, and $JOHN, causing significant losses for many early followers.
KOLs That Have "Collapsed" Over the Years
Crypto Beast's actions are not an isolated case but rather a microcosm of the "manipulation script" frequently seen in the Web3 world.
With a large fan base and influence, KOLs can easily stir up a wave of speculation, while they may be deeply tied to deployers and initial holders, quietly ensnaring retail investors.
In recent years, ZachXBT has continuously exposed several similar harvesting cases:
BitBoy (Ben Armstrong): A well-known crypto YouTuber who has long received "soft advertising fees" to promote scam coins and altcoins, previously promoting tokens like MYX, DISTX, ETHY, LOCK, which later collapsed.
Logan Paul: A famous influencer and boxer who used wallets under his name to buy low-priced tokens or NFTs in advance, promoting them on social media before selling at high prices.
Lark Davis: With 1.4 million followers, he frequently recommends low-market-cap projects to his fans, then quickly sells off, including tokens like SHOPX, DOWS, UMB, etc.
Laurent Correia: A well-known French influencer and reality TV star who operated the NFT project "Billionaire Dogs Club," which saw the team run away within a week of launch.
The brutal crash of ALT to zero in four hours is just a "normal" "harvesting" script in the Web3 world.
Projects can collapse, personas can fall, but the lessons must not be forgotten.
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