Crypto Influencer Lark Davis Escapes Celsius Bankruptcy With $2.5M

ZachXBT, an on-chain crypto sleuth, reveals that crypto investor Lark Davis withdrew $2.5 million from Celsius while promoting the platform.

According to ZachXBT, Davis started withdrawing funds long before rumors of problems at Celsius began circulating.

Community hits out at Davis

ZachXBT’s allegations are partly based on a voluminous financial report released by Celsius yesterday as part of its bankruptcy court case. The report contains the names and transactions of every Celsius user, including former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky and his wife, who collectively pulled $12 million from the platform in May 2022. Former CSO Daniel Leon allegedly withdrew $11 million.

In response to ZachXBT’s findings, many Twitter users expressed their anger at Davis:

Most of the furor centers around Davis’ alleged promotion of Celsius to his audience, revealed in a YouTube screenshot where he allegedly said of the company, “I like it too,” while he may have had insider information that caused him to withdraw his money from the platform. 

Additionally, revelations of Davis’ withdrawals have added insult to injury for some of his YouTube audience following pump-and-dump allegations made by ZachXBT in late Sep.2022.

Familiar patterns for Lark followers

On Sep. 29, 2022, ZachXBT alleged that Davis had unethically pocketed $1.2 million from selling eight new tokens he promoted to his 400,000-plus YouTube audience. His findings came after he identified Davis’s wallet address from an old YouTube video where Davis added his address to receive donations.

The crypto sleuth claimed that these sales caused the prices of these small market-cap tokens to tank, leaving Davis’s followers out of pocket.

According to ZachXBT, Lark had acquired UMB, DOWS, SHOPX, BLES, BMI, XED, APY, and PMON tokens. After receiving each of these tokens, Davis allegedly tweeted about them before selling them at a profit.

In response to the allegations, Davis insisted that he was not a crypto “whale,” meaning that his token sales were not large enough to cause the tokens’ prices to drop significantly. 

ZachXBT responded with the following tweet:

Davis also claimed that he disclosed to his audience that he had invested in specific tokens and had only tweeted about rising prices without telling them to buy the tokens.

To which the crypto sleuth responded:

“Of course the coin pumps on listing when the price starts at like $100k initial market cap. He claims to like these projects yet dumps instantly after shilling.”

At press time, Davis had not responded to ZachXBT’s Celsius allegations.

For Be[In]Crypto’s latest Bitcoin (BTC) analysis, click here