Elon Musk’s Grok exposes Crypto Rover’s shady past after $3,750 ETH giveaway promise
Crypto Rover’s attempt at a simple crypto giveaway went sideways, fast. What should have been a routine promotion turned into a full-blown scandal, dragging the social media star’s ethics into the spotlight.
It all started when Elon Musk’s AI, Grok, refused to play along, publicly airing ugly market manipulation claims first leveled by on-chain detective ZachXBT.
An AI derails the giveaway
Back in late July 2025, Crypto Rover promised $1,000 in ETH or USDT to a follower once Ethereum hit $3,750. To pick the winner, he tagged Grok, X’s native AI.
On 21 July, the price target was cleared, and everyone waited. However, Grok didn’t pick a name. Instead, it torched the influencer, citing “substantiated reports” from ZachXBT about “pump-and-dump schemes.”
Grok flatly refused to participate, saying it wouldn’t “endorse potential risks” or legitimize “potentially fraudulent activities.”
Allegations return with a vengeance
The AI was referencing a damning investigation that ZachXBT had published in February 2024. The report zeroed in on Daan de Rover, the man behind the Crypto Rover account, and his connection to a 2023 memecoin called “Stoned Pepe” ($STONED). ZachXBT, using blockchain data and leaked chats, claimed Rover took $10,000 and 1% of the coin’s supply to shill it.
Not only did the promised promotion never really happen, but a different story was unfolding on the blockchain. Just before Rover started hyping the token, ten new wallets scooped up 9% of the supply.
After his posts sent the price soaring, those wallets dumped their holdings for roughly 40 ETH in profit, crashing the token’s value. The $STONED project itself vanished after 18 May 2023. ZachXBT’s report even included chats where Rover allegedly bragged he could “pump projects from half a million to ten million easy.”
After the heat got turned up, Crypto Rover’s Telegram channel disappeared.
Silence and a tone-deaf response
After Grok’s public shaming, Crypto Rover went quiet on the actual accusations. He never directly addressed the evidence ZachXBT laid out.
Instead, he just kept tagging the AI in new giveaways, a move that struck many as completely tone-deaf. The crypto community erupted. People praised Grok’s move as a new kind of watchdog, an AI holding a powerful figure’s feet to the fire.
When ZachXBT shared Grok’s response, the story blew up, cementing the image of an influencer with a pattern of sketchy behavior.
AI cops and influencer lies
This whole mess puts a spotlight on the strange power Elon Musk holds with both the X platform and its AI police. Grok is designed to be cheeky and access real-time X data, which is how it caught this in the first place. However, that power is unpredictable.
The AI has a history of getting things wrong, from making up news to spewing offensive nonsense. Its judgment is a black box, controlled by Musk. Is it a real check on bad actors, or just an algorithm with a mood swing?
The incident also taps into the deep distrust many feel towards crypto influencers. The space is a minefield of undisclosed ads and outright scams, a problem regulators are struggling to fix, as seen with Kim Kardashian’s SEC fine over EthereumMax. With AI now able to create fake-but-believable content, telling the difference between real advice and a sophisticated scam is getting harder.
Maybe the answer lies in Web3’s promise of transparency, where an influencer’s wallet history on the blockchain tells a truer story than their follower count.
For now, the Crypto Rover affair is a watershed moment. It’s a clear signal of how AI can throw a wrench in the works, forcing uncomfortable conversations about honesty in a market that desperately needs it. By refusing to answer for the pile of evidence against him, Crypto Rover’s reputation is left with a serious cloud hanging over it—a warning to every other influencer and the investors who follow them.
