Khaby Lame's $975 Million Deal Collapses: Stock Plunges 90%, Brokers Block Trading

TikTok's biggest creator, Khaby Lame, struck what looked like a landmark deal in January—a $975 million merger with a publicly traded shell company called Rich Sparkle Holdings that would make him one of the few creators with a publicly traded stake. The announcement set off a feeding frenzy among retail investors, with Rich Sparkle's stock rocketing upward. But the deal has quietly imploded: the stock has cratered more than 90% from its January peak, major brokerages including Fidelity, Charles Schwab, E-Trade, and Merrill Lynch have restricted or blocked trading, and there's been radio silence from both Lame and Rich Sparkle for months.

The red flags are everywhere. While Rich Sparkle called the acquisition "completed" in a January press release, its March 31 SEC filing still described the deal as contingent—and potentially void if conditions weren't met by February 28. There have been no formal filings showing that Lame's company received the 75 million shares it was promised. Lame himself has scrubbed all references to Rich Sparkle from his Instagram and TikTok bios and hasn't publicly addressed the deal since January, despite being an otherwise prolific poster. Rich Sparkle, registered in the British Virgin Islands and based in Hong Kong, won't return calls or emails.

The silence masks what was supposed to be a watershed moment for the creator economy. Unlike MrBeast—whose $5 billion valuation remains private—Lame's deal would have given retail investors direct access to a creator's fortunes. Instead, it's become a cautionary tale. The company's $4 billion annual product sales projection for a digital Lame avatar struck insiders as "wildly optimistic." Meanwhile, day traders who bought in hoping for a quick flip are stuck watching the stock crater. Lame himself has moved on publicly, collaborating with Lego and signing on as an ambassador for the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games, while his potential $975 million windfall evaporates with each passing day of no news.

Georgetown finance professor James Angel explains that brokers are pulling the stock partly because Rich Sparkle's $133 million market cap makes it a logistics headache—small-cap stocks can disappear overnight, creating problems for back office operations. But the real issue is the deal's ambiguity. A foreign-registered company filing quirk means retail investors could wait months to learn whether the deal actually closed. For now, Lame's signature move—the wordless TikTok video exposing life's inefficiencies—appears to be his approach to his own business deal.