Save the Kids token was a cryptocurrency token and pump and dump scheme which was marketed as a charity token meant to give a percentage of the transaction fee to a Binance-operated charity. The token was widely publicized by YouTube personalities, including RiceGum and now-former members of the FaZe Clan, in the time leading up to its initial launch.
Background
Save the Kids token was developed by an individual named Lucas, who disclosed that the project was first formed by two individuals named "Manny" and "H.", who for legal reasons could not disclose the full name of the founders. Lucas claimed when he was originally recruited to develop, he initially believed the charitable intentions of the founders, though later learned that the founders were going around bringing on board several social media influencers to market the coin. Lucas additionally added that he was initially concerned Manny and H. were part of a larger group who were working to fund further pump and dump schemes.
The pump and dump aspect was caused from the token's anti-whaling mechanism, which is intended to prevent larger stakeholders from selling a large part of their funds. The site initially described that any single holder who owned over 0.5% of all tokens would be designated as a "whale", who could only sell 20% of your total supply every 24 hours in 0.1% transaction limits until they no longer held 0.5% of all supply. However, it was later discovered that the code had been tweaked at the last minute, enabling "whales" to sell all of their holdings with only a minute time limit.
Promotion
Save the Kids was widely promoted by commentator RiceGum, Xcademy founder Joel Morris, and model Sommer Ray, as well as FaZe Clan members Kay (Frazier Khattri), Jarvis (Jarvis Khattri), Nikan (Nikan Nadim), and Teeqo. Many of the influencers appeared in videos promoting the token and made numerous tweets encouraging their fanbase, mostly consisting of teenagers, to purchase the token.
Launch
Save the Kids Token was launched on June 5, 2021, and traded on the PancakeSwap exchange under the symbol $KIDS, starting around US$0.02. Immediately, though, the price of tokens collapsed to less than half a cent and further declined to price the token around $0.00138 at the start of July 2021. According to YouTuber Coffeezilla, the crash of Save the Kids was caused by Jarvis selling two-thirds of his coins, Nikan selling one-third of his holdings, and Kay selling nearly his entire collection of tokens, predicted to be valued around US$80,000 by Coffeezilla.
Aftermath
After the scandal arose, Save the Kids Token's website was taken offline, and various influencers have removed their tweets on the incident. Binance themselves addressed the controversy saying that they do not accept donations from altcoin campaigns, disproving Save the Kids Token's claim that they had donated over US$80,000 to the charity. The project is believed to have been abandoned, and the website has since been taken offline.
Coffeezilla investigation
YouTuber Stephen Findeisen, known online as Coffeezilla, conducted an investigation into the entirety of the Save the Kids token scandal. Ultimately, Findeisen found that Manny was only a middleman behind the scandal and that most influencers who promoted the currency were connected with it through their managers. The primary architects of the scheme were Frazier Kay, who had used several cryptocurrency wallets to potentially hide his tracks, Jordan Galen, a manager and promotion finder for Kay and various other members of the FaZe Clan, and YouTube personality Sam Pepper. Findeisen eventually uncovered that Lucas had changed the anti-whale mechanism on orders from Pepper, and that Kay was one of the main architects of the Save the Kids token. It was also suggested in Findeisen's videos that Kay and Pepper broke ties during the launch of Save the Kids, a possible motive for Pepper to order that Lucas change the anti-whale mechanism, a claim Kay continues to make. However, Kay additionally stated to Findeisen that he knew nothing about cryptocurrency, which Findeisen debunked by stating Frazier had multiple cryptocurrency wallets with one having hundreds of different cryptocurrencies.