A Sotheby’s employee is at the center of a dust-up over a $1 million meme coin he created, $BAN, inspired by and named after Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian, a banana duct taped to the wall that may itself fetch $1 million at Sotheby’s on November 19.

Michael Bouhanna, head of digital art and NFTs at Sotheby’s, launched $BAN (Comedian) shortly after Artnet broke the news of the controversial artwork heading to auction during the upcoming bellwether sales in New York, with an estimate of $1 million to $1.5 million.

He launched it on the Pump.Fun platform and it quickly became “the latest sensation” of the unregulated meme coin market, according to a post on Medium, which claimed that a lucky trader turned “an initial investment of $1,795 into a jaw-dropping $873,000 in merely two days!”

Members of the crypto-trading community quickly traced the token’s creation to Bouhanna based on his previous digital wallet activity.

A social media storm followed, as some users on X (formerly Twitter) accused Bouhanna of “insider trading” due to his links to the auction house and his network within the crypto-trading community.

After days of pressure, Bouhanna broke his silence on Sunday, denying the suggestions that he was the trader who had pocketed $1 million, writing that, “the wallet in question does not belong to me, and most of this amount was unrealized value.”

Recently, there have been many misconceptions and false claims circulating about the launch of a meme coin called BAN, and I want to clarify what happened and clear the air.

9 days ago I launched a token called BAN on the Pump. Fun platform as a spontaneous project and a…

— Michael Bouhanna (@michaelbouhanna) November 3, 2024

Bouhanna added that “Sotheby’s has no affiliation whatsoever with the token,” according to his post on X. He launched the meme coin as “a spontaneous project and a personal hobby completely unrelated to my role at Sotheby’s,” he said.

“I had no expectations for it to gain the level of attention it did, and its rapid growth was unexpected, driven solely by the community without any intervention from me,” he said.

Artists don’t make objects. Artists make mythologies.
A. Kapoor

How much do you think Comedian will sell for? pic.twitter.com/TENx9YQ1Qh

— Michael Bouhanna (@michaelbouhanna) November 1, 2024

Bouhanna claims he didn’t promote $BAN or encourage anyone to buy it, including his friends with whom he initially shared the coin’s launch. Crypto trading sleuths such as Lookonchain connected the wallet numbers of the deployment wallet and the wallet of the winning trader. Their analysis showed how the trader sold off parts of $BAN following each price peak.

“Everyone could learn from this trader’s selling strategy,” Lookonchain wrote on X. “Instead of panic selling everything at once, he gradually sold portions after each surge to avoid missing the rally.”

This guy turned $1,795 into $873K in just 2 days — a 490x return!

Everyone could learn from this trader’s selling strategy: instead of panic selling everything at once, he gradually sold portions after each surge to avoid missing the rally.

He initially spent 10.2 $SOL($1,795)… pic.twitter.com/bk9YjKfCmD

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) October 27, 2024

Bouhanna has denied that he is the winning trader.

“Initially, I chose to launch the token anonymously, not wanting to associate it with my personal profile or professional affiliations,” Bouhanna said. “I didn’t even verify if my wallet could be traced, which shows how little I anticipated the token would attract attention.”

Sotheby’s did not respond to a request for comment by press time.