Dave Portnoy nets over $250,000 by creating and selling ‘Greed’ memecoin

A wallet associated with Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy deployed a Solana memecoin named Greed and sold a large chunk of the supply afterward to cause the token to collapse.

Analytics firm Lookonchain noted that Portnoy bought $357.9 million worth of the memecoin, which amounted to 35% of the total supply and later sold his holdings. Portnoy made nearly $258,000 in profit, according to Lookonchain. Portnoy said he converted his proceeds from GREED into another memecoin JAILSTOOL, which he promotes.

As Portnoy sold off the token, its price crashed from $0.03 to $0.003, a drawdown of over 90%, according to Dexscreener data .

Later on Tuesday, Portnoy launched GREED2 memecoin and reportedly bought 26.82% of its supply. “Just launched GREED2,” Portnoy wrote on X. “Don’t invest in this collectible coin with more than you can afford to lose. It’ll be volatile.”

Despite Portnoy’s warning, GREED2’s market capitalization quickly soared above $28 million but has now fallen below $750,000, according to pump.fun data .

On his X account, Portnoy has uploaded an image of Fortune Magazine’s 2005 cover story titled “Is Greed Still Good?” featuring Michael Douglas, who portrayed Gordon Gekko in the 1987 movie “Wall Street.” This cover is also attached to his GREED2 memecoin on pump.fun.

The fictional character Gordon Gekko has become a pop culture symbol embodying greed and ruthless pursuit of wealth and power, regardless of law or ethics.

“There are lots of people in the meme coin world who try to act like they are the moral authority when all they want to do is dump on you and make easy money,” Portnoy wrote in one of his X posts published Tuesday. “You are all greedy. At least admit it. I won’t screw you but the guy next to you may. This collectible token commemorates that.”

While it appears that the Barstool founder’s GREED memecoins stem from his cynicism against memecoins and typical behavior manifested by their investors, several members of the crypto community have accused Portnoy of orchestrating yet another rugpull scheme using memecoins.

“Pump and dump schemes and fraud aren't legal just because Donald Trump launched a coin,” wrote X user @ugliestduck. “Wouldn’t be surprised if someone as influential as Dave Portnoy is investigated by the New York Attorney General's office.

Connection to other memecoin activities

Earlier this week, Portnoy had his name linked to the Libra memecoin . According to Libra team member Hayden Davis , Portnoy lost millions trading Libra, after which Davis gave him a refund as a gift. 

Portnoy claims he returned the tokens after Davis asked him to keep the gift quiet.

Meanwhile, Libra project’s Davis admitted that the team sniped the tokens as Libra launched and profited from it. 

He has previously promoted JAILSTOOL memecoin on X, though he said he didn't create it. Unlike his GREED memecoins, Portnoy claimed he would not sell JAILSTOOL until it hits $1 billion in market capitalization.

“Everything else I’ve said I can sell… I’ve warned people,” Portnoy said . “I don’t cash out. I’m 600K-ish in the red. Yet people call me a scammer.”