Crypto influencer Ansem has admitted that he lied while trying to score dogwifhat (WIF) a spot on the Las Vegas Sphere, claiming that it was never a crypto, “just a dog.”
Ansem, real name Zion Thomas, revealed in an interview on Market Bubble that it was incredibly hard to get around the sphere’s anti-crypto policies, and so he tried various measures to keep WIF’s crypto links hidden.
He said, “So what we were trying to do to get around it, is like, oh no, it’s just a dog with a hat, it’s not a coin. It’s just like a dog.”
Ansem also tried to secure a spot on the sphere via a partnership with a clothing brand that would involve the dog design on their clothing.
However, he explained, “When we were close to the end, we kept being blown up by crypto people, like ‘yo they scammed, they’re trying to steal the money, they’re not gonna give it back.’”
Read more: WIF fundraiser says Vegas Sphere refunds will start on April Fools
The claims made it hard for Ansem to address the backlash. He said, “We can’t say what exactly we’re trying to do because if we say what exactly we’re trying to do, they’ll know it’s the coin attached to it, and then we won’t be able to do it.”
The money that fuelled the scam accusations was the $700,000 raised from the public to help fund the sphere spot.
The fundraiser started in March 2024. Decrypt reported in January 2025 that a Sphere deal with WIF was never on the cards.
This was despite the memecoin’s X account posting, and quickly deleting, “Officially confirmed. Viva hat vegas.”
To make matters more confusing, it announced the refunds for the fundraiser on April Fool’s Day. WIF is down 96% since its all-time high around the time the fundraiser was announced.
Ansem has since gone on to launch his own $ANSEM token. Its price has shot up over 75,000% across the past seven days while onlookers have questioned why he has allocated large sums of the airdrop to a small number of wallets.
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