The brief career of William Banks is one of the crypto industry’s most bizarre tales, involving months of staged content, a fake jailbreak that earned over 10 million views, and two memecoin rug pulls that he claimed raised approximately $50,000 for Palestinian aid organizations. 

On memecoin platform Pump Fun, where over 99% of tokens collapse to near-$0, the self-proclaimed comedian tried to stand apart by using philanthropy to justify his antics.

“Thank you to the crypto community for buying my pretend memecoin and helping me to raise $50,000 for the crisis in Gaza,” he said about a very real, not-at-all pretend memecoin that he created

“Free Palestine,” he added.

He also proclaimed, “William Banks is…