A new “WEB3” token presale has come under heavy scrutiny after blockchain investigator ZachXBT warned that the project may be tied to individuals behind some of the most notorious scams in the NFT space, including the failed Squiggles collection and alleged scammer “Raichu.”
The project, called WEB3, announced its token presale this week through its official X account. The post instructed users to send SOL to a specified wallet address in exchange for $WEB3 tokens, which would later be airdropped to contributors.
ZachXBT Warns WEB3 Token Sale Involves Figures Behind Past Rug Pulls
According to the announcement, the WEB3 price will be determined by the amount of SOL raised divided by the total supply. The team also noted that the presale could end at any time and emphasized that participants should not send funds from exchange wallets.
Reportedly, the project raised $500k in 3 hours, and it has less than 12 hours left.
While the project framed the offering as a step toward fairness and transparency, ZachXBT quickly raised concerns. “Community alert: @web3 is linked to a team member of the Squiggles NFT rug and Raichu, who I previously posted about,” he wrote on X.
The alarm comes amid resurfacing evidence of the Squiggles scandal in early 2022, when the project drew more than 230,000 Twitter followers and over 360,000 Discord members ahead of a highly anticipated NFT drop.
Investigations at the time by YouTuber Coffeezilla and others suggested the collection’s founders were frontmen for a group of serial scammers known as “NFT Factory LA.” The group was linked to multiple failed projects, including League of Sacred Devils, Lucky Buddhas, and Sinful Souls.
Coffeezilla’s reporting revealed that Squiggles’ team allegedly manipulated sales volume using “shadow wallets” to create the appearance of demand.
A single account reportedly spent over 800 ETH, more than $2 million, across hundreds of wallets that each purchased three Squiggles NFTs before relisting them on secondary markets.
Hours after the drop, OpenSea delisted the collection, effectively ending the scheme before it could reach its full $20 million target.
The same network of individuals has been tied to Raichu, also known as Ryan, a promoter who connected NFT projects with celebrities and influencers.
ZachXBT documented Raichu’s role in several rug pulls, including Baller Ape Club, which raised $2.6 million before its founder was charged by the U.S. Department of Justice, and Crazy Lemur Club, which disappeared with $320,000.
He also linked Raichu to Ancient Cats Club, which allegedly stole $1.7 million, before its team moved on to launch other scams like Bored Bunny and Rich Dwarves Tribe.
In light of this, WEB3’s presale announcement has sparked skepticism. The project itself acknowledged in a statement that it anticipated controversy, referencing comparisons to previous hype-driven launches like $YZY, $Libra, and other tokens.
Source: WEB3The team claimed it had initially pursued a private fundraising round involving prominent investors but later refunded those contributions, insisting it wanted to “level the playing field” through a public presale.
“When building @web3, we knew what the broader Crypto Twitter community would say about us,” the team wrote. “Our mission is to let the people thrive, build with core DeFi principles, and create a culture that can sustain anything. It’s time to believe in something again.”
Despite the reassurances, ZachXBT’s warning has amplified doubts, especially given the project’s links to figures previously accused of orchestrating multimillion-dollar rug pulls.
While WEB3 positions itself as an attempt to “Make Crypto Fair Again,” critics argue that the involvement of known actors from past scams raises serious red flags.
At press time, the WEB3 presale remains active, though questions about its legitimacy continue to grow across social platforms.
WEB3 Team Dismisses Scam Allegations as “FUD,” Cites Transparency Measures
The project is calling the claims “FUD” and outlining steps it says prove legitimacy. In a public statement, the team argued that suggestions the token had launched before were “blatantly false,” urging critics to “check the chain.”
The group also distanced itself from an individual named Arsalan, accused of trying to raise funds in its name.
According to the statement, the team terminated the associated member, refunded the “extremely small” amount collected, and later returned the entirety of its private sale funds.
The project insisted its founders had privately doxxed and described its goal as building “the largest index / media outlet in all of crypto.”
The dispute comes against a backdrop of rising crypto crime. PeckShield data shows hackers stole $142 million in July 2025, up 27% from June. India’s CoinDCX lost $44.2 million in an insider-assisted attack, while DeFi protocol GMX suffered a $42 million exploit before negotiating a white-hat recovery.
In total, $2.2 billion vanished in the first half of the year across 344 incidents, with wallet hacks accounting for $1.7 billion and phishing scams another $410 million.
ZachXBT himself has tracked several high-profile frauds. In June, he unmasked New Yorker Christian Nieves, who posed as Coinbase support staff to steal $4 million from users before gambling the funds away.
More recently, on Aug. 13, he exposed a ring of five North Korean IT operatives who allegedly forged identities to secure developer jobs at crypto projects. Breached device data revealed fake IDs, Upwork and LinkedIn accounts, and stolen credentials.
The latest presale controversy shows how even high-profile projects remain vulnerable to reputational damage amid a widening climate of crypto fraud.
The post ZachXBT Sounds Alarm on WEB3 Presale — Linked to Squiggles NFT Rug and Raichu Scammer appeared first on Cryptonews.
