Under the shadow of a federal financial scandal, a wallet linked to the alleged theft of assets seized by the US government executed a Solana memecoin launch, suffering an immediate crash. According to on-chain investigators, the John Daghita (LICK) token lost nearly all its value after reaching a short-lived market capitalization peak near one million dollars.
This maneuver, originally detected by analyst ZachXBT, directly links the asset issuer to the unauthorized theft of tens of millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies under official custody. The staggering 97% drop in less than a day of trading highlights the systemic risks of the Pump.fun platform, where opacity in initial supply distribution continues to be a major red flag.
Despite the token showing an initial rally that pushed its valuation to $915,000, operational reality revealed a manipulation scenario where the deployer address acquired large liquidity blocks in the very early stages. This behavior, typical of pump-and-dump schemes, preceded a massive sell-off that left retail investors with devastating losses of their invested capital.
Concerning supply control and technical warning signs
According to data visualization analysis from Bubblemaps, the token creator held 40% of the total supply at launch, representing a dangerous concentration of power for any market. This massive accumulation of assets in a single entity facilitates the execution of coordinated liquidity exits, invalidating any claim of decentralization or fair launch for the community.
The connection of John Daghita, son of a defense services executive, to the unauthorized access of government-managed wallets adds a layer of legal gravity to the incident. While the US Marshals Service confirms an ongoing investigation, the market watches as allegedly illicit funds are used to finance speculative operations on high-speed networks, further complicating the tracking of the original assets.
How does this scandal affect trust in Pump.fun launches?
The recurrence of these types of events, similar to the WOLF token collapse that wiped out 42 million dollars in March, suggests the ecosystem requires much stricter real-time auditing mechanisms. While technology allows for the instant creation of assets, the lack of controls over internal wallet sniping fosters an environment where malicious actors thrive at the expense of overall sector transparency.
In the near future, regulatory pressure on launch platforms is likely to increase drastically given the evidence that criminals use these tools to launder stolen capital. For now, the fate of LICK serves as a grim warning about extreme volatility and the inherent dangers of following trends linked to figures under federal investigation in the digital space.
