Is Russian Influencer Hasbulla Launching Another Meme Coin Rug Pull?

Hasbulla, a Russian influencer with a history of meme coins and rug pulls, launched a $20 million presale for his new BULLA token.

Approximately one-fifth of all sales took place with World Liberty Financial’s USD1 stablecoin, making him the ninth-largest holder.

Hasbulla’s BULLA Token: Successful and Divisive

Hasbulla has launched several meme coins in the past years, most of which allegedly led to rug pulls. Yesterday, he launched a presale for his new BULLA token on the BNB chain, which proved wildly successful.

Multiple prominent crypto luminaries immediately denounced BULLA as a scam. Yet, Hasbulla gained over $20 million from the presale.

Hasbulla raised $20M for a memecoin presale in the past 24 hours.One single address sent in almost $1 Million USD1.Good luck to all participants! pic.twitter.com/ifvYw0NrDr

— Arkham (@arkham) May 27, 2025

Despite the community’s apparent consternation, not everyone was bothered by this incident. For example, Hasbulla credited analysis platform Arkham Intelligence for reporting on the BULLA sale, encouraging his followers to show the firm some love.

There is ample blockchain data on the event; over one-fifth of BULLA purchases were made by USD1 holders. As a result, Hasbulla is currently the ninth-largest holder of USD1 in the world.

The presale may have finished, but token distribution hasn’t happened yet. Already, scammers are capitalizing on this fact with fake BULLA tokens.

Still, many crypto community members have tried to sound the alarm about Hasbulla running a scam with BULLA. His 2021 NFT collection did not deliver all the promised rewards, and last year’s fumbled BARSIK token is still bringing in profits.

However, despite some users’ attempts to warn investors, others had a very different response of pure contempt.

Either we let the regulators come and control our keys, decide what you are and aren’t allowed to buy/invest in because you’re too low IQ to make your own decisions, or people are responsible for their own transactions and Hasbulla didn’t “steal” from anyone You can think it’s… https://t.co/qCg04QkWot

— ⟠Palis⟠ (@palis) May 27, 2025

Did the crypto industry learn nothing from previously failed celebrity meme coins, like Hawk Tuah’s rug pull? Apparently not.

Underhanded figures have been pursuing violent crimes and sophisticated hacks, but there are other ways to make money easily.

A large part of the meme coin community seems prepared to gamble on these speculative celebrity tokens, even though some are glaringly fake and scams. So, why should Hasbulla’s BULLA coin be any different?

Anyone with an optimistic vision for the crypto industry should be worried about this entire incident. Retail investors’ greed might be the only thing keeping scams and frauds afloat in this chaotic moment.

Still, it’s very difficult to keep the crypto community intact when victims are despised for alleged personal failings.