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Japanese YouTube personality Hikaru netted nearly $500,000 from the digital trading card pump and dump he participated in on the Valu platform last month, according to an updated report.
As CCN reported earlier this month, Hikaru and his friends allegedly manipulated the Valu trading platform to rake in hundreds of thousands of dollars. Valu is a type of crowdfunding marketplace that allows YouTubers and other public personalities to issue digital tokens. Although the English-language version of the company website compares the tokens to company stock and token holders to shareholders, the Valu tokens function more like digital trading cards.
The tokens are issued through the Open Assets Protocol and can be exchanged for bitcoin. Tokens do not entitle shareholders to dividends or voting rights, but they may give them access to incentives such as shareholder-only events or early access to new content. Valu advertises that both token creators and investors can realize profits from using the platform:
“Getting started with VALU is simple. Make your own [Valu token] with just a little investment and basic knowledge. Like trading cards, when you trade with others, you gain profit.”
Shortly after joining Valu, Hikaru told his social media followers that he wanted to do something interesting to “move his Value shares in one moment.” Following the announcement, speculators began gobbling up the tokens, causing his share price to soar. The next day, Hikaru and a small group of his friends sold the shares they controlled, maximizing their profits and causing the share price to crash. According to an updated report from Bloomberg, they netted the equivalent of $490,000 from the scheme.
