Crypto Influencer Mario Nawfal Allegedly Involved in $7M ROSS Token Rug Pull

Crypto influencer and entrepreneur Mario Nawfal is facing allegations of orchestrating a memecoin rug pull tied to the popular streamer Adin Ross. For context, a rug pull occurs when early promoters inflate a token’s value and then abandon the project, leaving buyers with worthless assets.

The controversy began after Nawfal’s X account, @RoundtableSpace, posted about an alleged partnership with Ross to launch a Solana-based token, ROSS. However, the post was deleted shortly after, sparking suspicions of fraudulent activity.

Sudden Deletion Raises Red Flags

On Tuesday, @RoundtableSpace announced the launch of ROSS, claiming Ross was backing the project. The tweet included a contract address, making it appear legitimate. But within 20 minutes, the post was removed, leading to immediate skepticism in the crypto community.

Crypto analyst Iyxe quickly called out the incident, accusing Nawfal of fabricating the partnership to artificially boost the token’s price. The analyst shared screenshots of the deleted post and a price chart showing an 82.72% crash, suggesting a rug pull had occurred.

so @MarioNawfal just posted a fake “partnership” with Adin Ross for a memecoin,

then rugs the coin from $7m to 0, and deletes all the tweets…

bruh pic.twitter.com/Xjmb472aPO

— lyxe (@cryptolyxe) March 18, 2025

According to the analyst, ROSS’s market cap briefly surged to $7 million before collapsing to zero.

Nawfal’s Defense

Following the backlash, Nawfal’s team issued statements denying involvement in the alleged scam. They claimed that a supposed unauthorized team member had posted about the token without proper approval.

“Yesterday, @hardsnipe convinced someone from our team to post about a scam project claiming Adin Ross was involved. The deal did not get approval from management but still somehow got posted. As soon as the team spotted the post, it was deleted, and we assumed it was human error,” Nawfal stated.

To regain control, Nawfal’s team said they revoked delegate access and reset passwords to prevent further unauthorized activity.

Community Doubts Nawfal’s Explanation

Despite these claims, many within the crypto space remain skeptical. Some users, including Keano, pointed to Nawfal’s past promotions of questionable projects, questioning whether this was truly an accident.

“this is literally your 3rd rug this month stfu lmfao,” Keano remarked.