A new report by blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain has insinuated that Michael Bouhanna, Sotheby’s Vice President, recently got into the meme coin market looking for quick cash.
They say that after trying his hand with many and getting nowhere, he turned to his own creation and walked away with over a million dollars.
Bouhanna launched a meme token named BAN. He used a wallet identified as “5W7U…b3cV” to do it. Now the wallet wasn’t a secret, he’d publicly confirmed ownership before quietly deleting the tweet.
Allegations of insider games and $1M in profit
The funds that fueled the wallet came from another source: “EwVB…mD2.” This wallet, too, had dabbled in meme coins on the trading platform Pump.fun, specifically on October 22, where it churned through more than ten meme tokens in a single day without any gains.
Lookonchain says that frustrated with losses, Bouhanna decided to launch BAN with a clear plan to capitalize, despite initially burning all 37.36 million tokens in his wallet to dodge scrutiny.
But he had an insider strategy lined up, according to the report. He used an additional wallet, “3wj7…yBoG,” which was also funded by the “EwVB…mD2” account. Lookonchain thinks it’s likely that Bouhanna controlled this insider wallet, using it to buy BAN and flip the $1 million profit.
He allegedly made calculated trades, including spending 10.2 SOL (about $1,795) to purchase 36.27 million BAN. He cashed out half (18.13 million tokens) for $137,600, leaving the other half valued at $900,000, per the report.
Bouhanna responds to the allegations
Bouhanna took to Twitter to refute the allegations, framing BAN as nothing more than a playful, spontaneous project he launched for fun. According to Bouhanna, BAN was never meant to be a profit-making venture, nor was it in any way affiliated with his role at Sotheby’s.
He insisted that he created the token as a satire of the meme coin craze, inspired by the conceptual art piece “Comedian,” which he said “raises very interesting questions about the nature of art and value.”
He claims he launched BAN anonymously and even shared it only with a handful of friends who trade NFTs and meme coins without ever expecting it to gain traction.
When people eventually traced the token back to him, Bouhanna claims, the narrative “was pushed to promote the token without [his] involvement, encouragement, or approval.”
He also addressed the wallets connected to the alleged $1 million in profit, denying ownership and stating that the reported amount was mostly unrealized value.
Bouhanna said he publicly burned 3.7% of the tokens from his creator wallet to show transparency. He called the profit claims “completely false” and said they were based on misunderstandings about the wallet’s ownership and his intentions with BAN.
Sotheby’s heavy footprint in crypto and NFT auctions
Meanwhile this year, Sotheby’s strengthened its grip on the crypto and NFT market. An auction they had back in June was a standout, featuring NFTs from the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC).
A solid-gold Bored Ape from the now-defunct crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) was up for grabs. This rare NFT caught intense bidding interest. A similar gold-furred NFT sold for $933,000 just a few months earlier, in March.
That one had two gold-furred Mutant Apes and many Bored Ape Kennel Club NFTs. Sotheby’s has made itself known in NFT circles for high-profile sales, like the $6.2 million it pulled in from “The Goose,” another NFT from the 3AC collection in 2023.
That history of big-ticket sales has positioned Sotheby’s as a prime mover in the NFT space, despite market challenges. In January 2024, the broker hosted its first curated Bitcoin Ordinals sale, integrating Bitcoin-based collectibles into its digital lineup.
Part of their “Natively Digital” series, this auction was a leap into the Ordinals market, a space that got a lot of attention as rare satoshis (individual Bitcoin units with historical or unique attributes) emerge as collectibles.
The auction featured pieces from artists like Shroomtoshi and Jennifer & Kevin McCoy, with estimates from $12,000 to $40,000. Standout pieces included “Brancher,” a dynamic artwork that uses growth algorithms.
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