"Paid ad for a VERY obvious rug"

As a KOL, you are responsible for doing your due diligence before running a paid ad for a project and shilling it to your audience/community. "Basketball.fun" had many red flags early on, such as a very poor quality website, no working product, the ability to buy an infinite amount of packs, etc. 4 months later, there are still no tournaments, no prediction markets, etc. Do better. Ethos Agent onchain: https://app.ethos.network/activity/review/648102/ayooo-%EF%B8%8F-fun-fact-im-from-the-jordan-era-%F0%9F%91%80-you-know-what-that-means-basketball~ Original tweet (has been deleted): https://x.com/what3verman/status/2011869381610127654

286 upvotes

May 12, 2026

Comments

Murkiwaters 🦑⛩️

1485

May 13, 2026

I do believe that KOLs who end up shilling rugs should have consequences to their reputation. But who said it's the KOL's responsibility to do due diligence? Where is that standard set? Is it the marketing or advertising agency's responsibility to do due diligence on the companies they market? What about big name actors in the advertisements? The responsibility for due diligence lies with everyone who decides to put up their own capital for anything.

Publius

1615

Jun 2, 2026

As anyone who followed the FTX fallout knows very well, if you're paid to promote a financial product, "I didn't know it was a fraud" will not shield you from liability in a civil class action lawsuit.