1% and a smile

He stayed. Then he took the fees.

October 2024: an AI artist posts a still from an ARG he has been building for years. Overnight someone launches $PROJECT89 on Pump.fun on his work, without consent. He does not refuse. He is given 1% of supply “and a smile.” The coin blows up. Ten months later the official account says others made millions while he got nothing — no trading fees, no LP, no contract — and migrates the token to Bonk Fun so the team can finally take the cashflow.

This is the long-arc cousin of the daily GitHub-PDA hunt, and it predates Pump’s social-fee product. Aftermath is not claim-as-pump, public refusal, or a refund. It is stay-and-build, then migrate to capture the fees the original gift never included. The log keeps it even if a later summary never leads with an ARG. The variation it feeds — “1% and a smile” — is what we hunt next.

Logged. Stays in the binder even if a later round never watches it.

Reported take: 1% of supply at launch (self-report); no creator fees until the Bonk Fun migration

Timeline

1. 23 Oct 2024@whyarethis posts “Working on something” — a still from an AI-powered ARG (status 1849274482609033636).
2. 24 Oct 2024Wakes up to a Pump coin. 524k-view thread: “Someone launched a $PROJECT89 token. Perfect timing.” Original mint Bz4MhmVRQENiCou7ZpJ575wpjNFjBjVBSiVhuNg1pump. Posts a SOL wallet and says he will spend the tokens on AI-given missions.
3. 19 Aug 2025@project_89 “Operation: Liberation” thread: “He didn’t launch the token… given 1% and a smile. Then it blew up. Others made millions while he got nothing.” “We didn’t launch this token. We didn’t choose the constraints.” A CTO of a coin “made on the work of the AI Artist… without his consent.”
4. 4 Oct 2025Migration complete. New CA CJjraBaedPnKzjnag12i7PVo5pSP6cB9heV8zr89bonk on Bonk Fun. “Trading fees generated on the new token will now directly fund” the studio. Team keeps 10% after burns.
5. Aug 2026Still trading. CoinGecko ~$0.00056, ~$0.77M mcap. He is still building. “Everything I do is project 89 whether or not a token exists.”

Still unknown

• Original Pump deployer wallet and whether they dumped into his 24 Oct thread.
• On-chain proof of the 1% supply transfer vs a handshake.
• Peak market cap vs what 1% was worth at that peak (official: “millions”).
• Whether Pump creator fees existed on that mint and who claimed them.
• How many other stay-and-migrate CTOs exist. Interview still owed.

Status: Stayed; CTO; migrated Oct 2025 to capture trading fees