Cryptocurrency titans make it seem easy for anyone to get rich off digital coins, and anyone who isn’t making millions in their free time is wasting an opportunity.

Cryptocurrency titans make it seem easy for anyone to get rich off digital coins, and anyone who isn't making millions in their free time is wasting an opportunity.

Cryptocurrency titans make it seem easy for anyone to get rich off digital coins, and anyone who isn’t making millions in their free time is wasting an opportunity.

The reality is far bleaker, especially for those who aren’t rapidly juggling several coins on an exchange or making a living from shilling coins to their followers.

Crypto really is the financial Wild West. There are almost no regulations or rules in digital coins as there are on the real-world currency exchanges and stock markets.

That makes it all too easy for everyone from hardened criminal gangs to petty grifters to take advantage of anyone they can reach.

All too often, this comes in the form of a friendly face and the well-worn promise that you can “get rich quick.”

To anyone over 30, those three words will immediately set off alarm bells. But in today’s TikTok and Instagram-driven world of influencers and finfluencers (the financial ‘advice’ equivalent), they have flashy new ways of dressing it up.

The latest vehicle for roping people, all too often younger men and teenagers, is are so-called meme coins. Created from thin air with names which appeal to the public – playing off celebrities, politicians, trends or grabby mascots – they make big money for their creators and the influencers who peddle them, but usually nothing for those who invest.

“The easiest way to make money is to deploy a meme coin, run it and then sell as soon as you see [profits],” Sahil Arora, who’s launched over 100 of these coins and claims he’s earned millions, told The Post.

The crypto security firm Blockade says most of the meme coins are scams, designed to have no lasting value.

Like others of his ilk, straight-talking Arora profits through a process known as “rug pulling.”

A coin is issued, prices rise quickly as people invest, then Arora, who, as the creator, keeps a large percentage of the coins, sells at or near the currency’s height.

He makes money; those who have put money into the coin lose; he essentially ‘pulls the rug out’ from under them.

“This is the biggest casino on Earth right now,” enthused Dubai-based Arora, who bragged about being called a “super villain.”

“If you don’t get rugged by me, you’re probably going to get rugged by someone else. So, you might as well get rugged by a person with a track record of some success rather than getting rugged by a random person on the Internet,” he bafflingly claimed.

Other, more recognizable influencers who have faced allegations of promoting meme coins and then leaving followers high and dry include Paul “Ice Poseidon” Denino, Faze Kay, and Haliey “Hawk Tuah Girl” Welch.

Denino has been accused of promoting a coin and walking away with $300,000, which his followers invested. He said, “I did make $300,000, but it was not at the expense of any fans or holders.”

Faze Kay is one of several influencers who is being accused of promoting a pump-and-dump scheme for a token called Save the Kids. He tweeted that he had “no ill intent promoting any crypto alt coins.”

Welch achieved quick fame as the Hawk Tuah Girl and had her name attached to a crypto that earned millions for so-called ‘snipers’.

These are people who use bots to monitor the rise of a meme coin and sell as soon as it is close to peaking.

Welch’s coin $HAWK lost 95% of its value in minutes. According to Welch’s manager, she had no involvement in the scheme. To back it up, he pointed out she was cleared of any wrongdoing by the SEC and other government agencies, and she is also not named in a class action lawsuit against the coin’s operators.

While crypto is a growing industry and there are genuine alternative currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, which have stabilized and held their value, many more are just scams.

“You get ‘influencers’ who are given [crypto] tokens in exchange for promoting them,” Kyle Chassé, a veteran crypto investor who will be appearing on an upcoming streaming show, “CryptoKnights,” told The Post.

“It should always be disclosed that these people are being paid to promote the coin. But not everybody has the moral compass to do that.”

People who follow the influencers see them promoting a coin and buy into promises that it will “go to the moon” – crypto speak for gaining huge amounts of value.

“Everyone anticipates the price going up, and it does, because there is a big [group of people] buying into it,” a crypto consultant who goes by the name Cryptony (who asked that his real name not be used) told The Post.

“The rich get richer,” said Cryptony