Dave Portnoy, the outspoken founder of Barstool Sports, isn’t just known for pizza reviews and sports commentary; he’s also made headlines for his stock and crypto trading exploits.
In recent years, Portnoy’s high-profile trades and market antics have drawn scrutiny from regulators, media, and investors.
Some have even questioned whether his activities skirt the line of insider trading or market manipulation. This article breaks down the publicly known allegations and controversies around Portnoy’s trading.
TLDR
- Portnoy publicly boosted Penn National Gaming after it bought part of Barstool Sports.
- He promoted VanEck’s social-sentiment ETF. The SEC later fined VanEck $1.75 million for hiding Portnoy’s paid role.
- Portnoy accepted millions of LIBRA tokens as payment to promote the coin.
- He created GREED, held 35.79 % of the supply, sold it for roughly $ 258k, and the price plunged 99 % in minutes.
- Hours later he launched GREED2, kept 26.8 % for himself, vowed not to dump “until midnight,” and warned followers to risk only what they could lose. The coin briefly hit a $28 million cap, then collapsed.
Insider Trading Allegations Involving Dave Portnoy
Several incidents have raised questions about Portnoy’s trading activities and prompted scrutiny or allegations, though none have led to official charges against him. Here are a few:
Cheerleading Penn Stock
One of the first times Portnoy drew insider trading speculation was in connection with Penn National Gaming (PENN) stock. In January 2020, Penn acquired a large stake in Barstool Sports, aligning Portnoy’s personal finances with Penn’s stock price.
Thereafter, Portnoy often praised Penn’s stock on Twitter and during his webcasts. He cheered the price surge and mocked anyone who doubted it. On multiple occasions in 2020, Portnoy’s public enthusiasm coincided with noticeable bumps in Penn’s share price and trading volume.
Now, you’re probably thinking what a lot of people were thinking at the time; isn’t this kind of sketchy? Here’s a guy with a massive following essentially pumping his stock to millions of people.
But, everything Portnoy was doing was completely out in the open.
He wasn’t hiding his financial interest in Penn as everyone knew about the acquisition. He wasn’t making secret trades or whispering tips to insiders. He was literally just talking up his investment on public platforms where everyone could see exactly what he was doing.
And that transparency might have been his saving grace.
Despite the chatter, there have been no official charges or SEC enforcement actions related to Portnoy’s Penn stock promotion. The SEC never announced any investigation into Penn’s stock trading during that period.
Portnoy’s situation was often contrasted with that of Tesla’s Elon Musk, another outspoken CEO whose tweets moved markets and who did face SEC action, but in Portnoy’s case, regulators did not intervene.
VanEck’s BUZZ ETF and Lack of Disclosure
In early 2021, Portnoy helped launch a new investment fund called the VanEck Vectors Social Sentiment ETF, known by the ticker BUZZ.
This fund sought to capitalize on the meme stock craze by tracking the top 75 stocks with positive sentiment on social media. Portnoy, with his “Davey Day Trader” fame, became a public ambassador for BUZZ, even ringing the opening bell for its debut.
However, it later came to light that Portnoy’s involvement was part of a business arrangement that had not been fully disclosed to regulators. In February 2024, the U.S. SEC announced a settlement with VanEck (the ETF’s sponsor) for failing to inform the fund’s board and regulators about Portnoy’s paid role in the ETF’s marketing.
The influencers were not named in the SEC’s order, but contemporaneous press reports widely identified one of them as Dave Portnoy. VanEck neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing but paid a $1.75 million penalty to settle the charges.
It’s worth emphasizing that Portnoy himself was not accused of any insider trading or securities violations in this matter. The enforcement action was directed at the company’s disclosure failure rather than Portnoy’s conduct.
Crypto Ventures and Insider Accusations
Portnoy’s move from stocks into cryptocurrencies brought a new set of controversies. He dabbled in various coins (often joking that they were essentially gambling). However, some of these ventures led to allegations of insider deals and pump-and-dump schemes.
Crypto Token Compensation (LIBRA)
Portnoy got entangled in an international crypto scandal involving a token called $LIBRA – not to be confused with Facebook’s former Libra project. $LIBRA was a meme coin promoted by Javier Milei, the president of Argentina, as a way to boost Argentine businesses.
Dave Portnoy became one of the influencers promoting the LIBRA token at its debut. He later revealed that the token’s creator, Hayden Davis, gave him 6 to 6.5 million LIBRA tokens as compensation for his promotion, essentially cutting him in on the deal.
Crucially, Portnoy says he was asked by the token founder not to disclose this compensation publicly. Portnoy claims this request raised an immediate red flag for him and he responded that he “can’t accept coins” under the condition of secrecy, and decided to return the tokens to the founder before things went sour.
He did keep the portion of LIBRA tokens he had bought with his own money, which subsequently became nearly worthless when LIBRA’s price collapsed almost immediately after launch.
The LIBRA token’s failure was dramatic. It lost over 95% of its value in a day, wiping out tens of millions in market capitalization.
In the aftermath, there were loud accusations on social media of an “insider rug pull,” implying that insiders (possibly including prominent promoters) profited while ordinary buyers were left with losses.
Even Argentina’s president, who had promoted LIBRA in a tweet, distanced himself and faced political fallout for his involvement.
In Portnoy’s case, the evidence suggests he did not profit from LIBRA’s crash rather, he was made whole via that private compensation (which he says he gave back) and ended up losing roughly $5 million of his funds on the investment.
Regardless, the LIBRA incident attached the specter of an “insider trading” controversy to Portnoy’s name in crypto, even though no regulators have (so far) announced any investigation into it.
Meme Coin Pump-and-Dump Claims (GREED)
Around the same time, Portnoy was generating even more buzz (and criticism) through his crypto creations. In February 2025, he launched a meme coin blatantly named GREED.
What followed, however, looked to many like a textbook pump-and-dump. Portnoy’s public crypto wallet showed him as the creator and majority holder of GREED tokens.
Shortly after hyping the coin, he dumped his entire 35.79% stake in one go, reaping about $258,000 in profit and causing the token’s price to crash 99% within minutes. Other GREED investors were effectively left holding worthless tokens.
In response to the outcry, Portnoy was unabashed. He argued on X (Twitter) that meme coins are a “big market” and basically a game of musical chairs. In his view, everyone knows they’re highly risky, and his job isn’t to babysit traders. “I’m able to turn 2k into just about a million in 15 minutes if I felt like it,” he bragged, suggesting that someone will always exploit these speculative manias.
To blunt the criticism, Portnoy launched a follow-up token called GREED2 almost immediately after the first GREED imploded. He kept roughly 26.8% of GREED2’s supply for himself and announced (somewhat facetiously) that he wouldn’t sell any of it until at least a certain time (midnight of launch day) or perhaps never.
Predictably, GREED2 also saw a brief surge (its market cap momentarily topped $28 million) before interest faded and it too plunged in value.
Within the crypto community, accusations toward Portnoy escalated. Many observers labeled GREED and similar schemes as outright scams, accusing Portnoy of executing roughly “15 pump-and-dumps” in succession targeting his fanbase.
It is important to note that, to date, these crypto-related controversies have not resulted in any official enforcement action against Portnoy.
Has Portnoy Been Charged for Insider Trading, and What’s His Stance?
In reviewing the public record, Dave Portnoy has not been officially charged with insider trading or related financial crimes.
Despite the swirl of allegations and controversies from hyping Penn stock to undisclosed promotional deals and eyebrow-raising crypto flips regulators have not formally accused Portnoy of insider trading.
The one enforcement action that did touch his activities (the SEC’s fine over the BUZZ ETF promotion) penalized the company involved, not Portnoy, and explicitly noted that Portnoy was not charged.
Other instances, like the Penn stock hype and the crypto token dramas, have so far resulted only in scrutiny and debate, not in any legal findings of misconduct.
That said, the absence of charges is not the same as a clean bill of health for one’s reputation.
He has been credibly accused in media and online forums of questionable behavior such as using insider advantages in crypto deals or manipulating meme stocks but no authoritative body has substantiated these claims.
Portnoy himself insists he plays by the rules as he understands them, even if his tactics are unorthodox. For now, the record shows that while Dave Portnoy’s name often pops up in insider trading conversations, he has never been found liable or punished for insider trading.