Philanthropist or Predator? The Crypto Business of Global Top Influencer "MrBeast"

Author: Frank, PANews

 

MrBeast, a top internet celebrity in the global online world, has built a content channel centered around generosity, extreme challenges, and huge prizes, amassing over 440 million YouTube subscribers. From recreating "Squid Game" to paying for sight-restoring surgeries for thousands of blind people, MrBeast's public image is seen by countless fans as the embodiment of generosity and kindness.

However, beyond the glamorous video content, a parallel world is quietly operating—the high-risk, high-reward world of cryptocurrency. Here, MrBeast's reputation takes on a very different face. Investigative reports from on-chain detectives and the crypto community portray MrBeast as a shrewd investor, accused of leveraging his unparalleled influence to participate in a series of alleged "pump and dump" token schemes, extracting tens of millions of dollars in profits from the frenzy of his followers.

So, what is the truth? Is this global top influencer really exploiting the trust of his fans for wealth extraction? How vast is his crypto investment empire, and how astonishing are his profits? PANews will dig deep to try to uncover the controversial other side of MrBeast in the crypto world.

The Investment Path of a Top Influencer: Earning Millions from NFTs

From an analysis of on-chain activity, MrBeast's wallet address can be traced back to June 2020, with initial operations mainly involving staking in some DeFi projects. While DeFi staking is now a common practice in the crypto industry, if we rewind to 2020, such operations were highly pioneering.

This pioneering approach was further validated in his dealings with CryptoPunks. In October 2020, MrBeast's address began purchasing multiple CryptoPunks NFTs, with individual costs ranging from $1,400 to $4,850. This was right before CryptoPunks began their explosive surge.

In February 2021, MrBeast publicly announced the purchase of eight CryptoPunks NFTs. Combined with previous acquisitions, he bought more than a dozen CryptoPunks NFTs in total. At the same time, many celebrities from the sports and entertainment industries were also chasing CryptoPunks, causing the floor price to skyrocket. By August, MrBeast began selling some of his NFTs, with the highest, CryptoPunk #7200, selling for 120 ETH, which was about $389,500 at the time. Compared to the initial cost of $2,166, this single NFT brought him over $380,000 in profit, a gain of more than 178 times.

Of course, this is just a snapshot of MrBeast's NFT operations. The profit from just the first four CryptoPunks he bought exceeded $1 million. On-chain traces show that this address conducted hundreds of NFT transactions.

It can be said that his attempts in NFTs were MrBeast's first foray into the crypto world, and one of the few crypto operations he was willing to publicly acknowledge. However, this high-profile phase also left on-chain clues linking his wallet address.

After earning his first pot of gold through NFT trading, this marked "main wallet" began to display a much more complex operation model than ordinary retail investors. On-chain data shows that funds and tokens were not simply left in the main wallet but were systematically distributed to a vast network of over 50 secondary wallets.

This sophisticated multi-wallet architecture indicates that it was not just MrBeast himself making impulsive personal trades, but rather an organized, well-planned professional team managing the operations.

MrBeast's Profit Machine: The Wealth Code of Over $23 Million

If NFT investment was just the beginning of MrBeast's crypto journey, then the subsequent series of altcoin investments truly revealed how he turned influence into astonishing profits.

Among all investments, SuperVerse was undoubtedly the most lucrative and controversial. With an initial presale investment of just $100,000, the operation ultimately generated an estimated profit of $11.45 million, a return of over 100 times.

According to leaked chat records, MrBeast promised to invest $100,000 in the project's presale. In return, he received an early private placement at the extremely low price of $0.02 per token, a privilege ordinary investors could not access.

After the token's public launch, MrBeast began to use his massive social media influence for "promotion." On May 12, 2021, after the project founder posted a tweet about market opportunities, MrBeast replied below with a single word: "super?" For his tens of millions of fans, this seemingly casual interaction was nothing less than a strong bullish signal.

The most controversial scene then unfolded. On-chain data shows that on the very day MrBeast posted the promotional tweet and in the following 72 hours, the wallet network associated with him had already begun and was conducting large-scale sell-offs. In just the three days after the tweet, about $200,000 worth of $SUPER tokens were sold. In the following months, as the token price soared more than 50 times due to celebrity effect, the wallet network systematically liquidated almost all its tokens through as many as 751 transactions, turning massive paper gains into real profits.

In the end, after frenzied retail investors bought in at the top, the price of $SUPER plummeted by more than 90%, causing many fans who followed MrBeast's signal to lose everything.

This success was not an isolated case, but part of a systematic investment strategy. The same pattern was replicated in several other projects. Ethernity Chain, Polychain Monsters, and others all had MrBeast or his team's involvement. According to

statistics from Lookonchain, at this stage, MrBeast's address may have generated profits exceeding $23 million. Compared to other influencers crossing over into crypto, MrBeast can be considered one of the most successful influencer players.

The Mystery of Wallet Ownership: Funds, Denials, and Evasion

With the exposure of huge profits, MrBeast's public image began to suffer unprecedented blows. The former charity idol was now labeled as "harvesting fans" and "insider trading." Under immense public pressure, MrBeast and his team launched a series of PR moves to distance themselves, making the true ownership and operator of the wallet increasingly mysterious.

In 2024, faced with growing community accusations and clear on-chain operational details, MrBeast had to confront the anger from the crypto world.

MrBeast did not deny the association with these wallets, but shifted the blame for improper operations to a crypto fund. He claimed: "These investments were made and managed in consultation with industry experts to ensure full compliance with all applicable rules and regulations. The wallet is not owned or managed by Jimmy, but by a fund led by respected and experienced managers. The fund closely evaluated and reviewed hundreds of opportunities, resulting in multiple investments."

In summary, these wallets are related to me, but I am not the one operating them. However, this ambiguous attitude of partial admission did not win the community's forgiveness. News of MrBeast's involvement in scams and insider trading is mentioned every time he makes a move.

Until September 2025, when MrBeast's wallet address once again bought the market's hot ASTER token. As of October 1, MrBeast had spent $1.68 million to buy 950,000 ASTER tokens. This move once again sparked community speculation that he was about to "shill" the token. But this time, MrBeast's reaction surprised everyone. Facing community discussion, he publicly issued a statement directly denying the investment, saying he had "never heard of this token" and "that is not his wallet."

This direct and complete denial fundamentally conflicted with the previous "managed by a fund" explanation. It led the community to new speculation: either MrBeast was lying, or the "fund management" was indeed operated by a third party, and he himself was unaware.

Whichever is true, it cannot be denied that these projects once benefited from, or were even directly or indirectly promoted by, MrBeast himself. As for the actual situation? Perhaps the "fund management" explanation is more reliable.

After all, past traces have proven the association between MrBeast and this wallet address. But for a billionaire and entrepreneur worth over $1 billion, it may not be realistic to personally conduct such complex on-chain operations and research.

The case of MrBeast seems to reflect another kind of helplessness in the crypto world. As the market cap of crypto assets continues to grow and enter the mainstream, the crypto market is becoming a low-risk cash machine for influential individuals and companies. More and more celebrities and influencers are trying to monetize their influence through crypto, then distance themselves with a statement. This has become a common practice. Behind this, for the natives of the crypto market, in the absence of regulation, perhaps the most important lesson is this: In the wave of convergence between influencers and capital, staying sober and cautious is your only shield.