Celebrities and crypto? Nothing new about that, right? Since Brock Pierce, who as a child starred in Walt Disney’s The Mighty Ducks, co-founded Blockchain Capital in 2013, some of the world’s most famous humans, from Donald Trump to Lindsay Lohan, have looked into cryptography to see what they gained.
Some celebrities have been able to use their glitzy names to boost existing crypto projects, with predictable results. The SEC has prosecuted a dozen cases over the past decade, ranging from Kim Kardashian to Floyd Mayweather Jr., who were fined for their promotional activities. Celebrities were also among the many people tarnished in FTX scandal it pretty much brought down the crypto industry.
So celebrities are part of crypto, it’s not new. What East New, and becoming a dominant theme last year, was the advent of the celebrity coin. As meme coins have replaced NFTs as degen’s preferred means of gaming, the celebrity meme coin has emerged, with nearly a dozen stars launching their own coins in the past year.
These influencers don’t just promote the pieces, they actually create pieces in their own image, promote them, and in some cases try to find businesses around them. For better – and, much more often, for worse.
Traditional investors often believe that Bitcoin Investors have a high risk tolerance, but even coin people are the true mavericks: they go into the Wild West with tokens that can soar or crash at any moment.
And nowhere is this more evident than on the popular coin launching platform, Pump.fun.
It was Olympic decathlete Caitlyn Jenner who started the celebrity craze by throwing her meme out there. Pump.fun, it should be noted, is where people do outrageous things for attention. A man threatened to kill a goldfish unless you bought his coin; another threatened to sit on the toilet until its token reaches a market cap of $50 million (and shaves an eyebrow when it hits $10 million). Some went even further, including a guy who set fire.
In May, in this circus environment, Jenner decided to launch her token by posing with Donald Trump, who was then preparing his re-election bid.
It’s hard to overstate how insane this moment was. In fact, many people thought there was no way it was Jenner. Obviously, his X account had been hacked. And then she posted a video with a weird Snapchat filter, leading some observers to believe it was an AI-powered deepfake scam. Even the creator of Pump.fun was stunned at first.
“I was shitting my pants,” said Alon, pseudonymous co-founder of Pump.fun. Decrypt. He said the event was one of the craziest moments in the company’s short but eventful history: “We put out a tweet about it – that she had flipped a coin and all that – and then we were like, “Did she even flip a coin?” I was wondering what was going on. It was so weird.
Turns out Jenner’s stunt was enabled by crypto promoter Sahil Arorawho had signed a contract with Jenner promising to launch the token. According to the contract shared by Arora and reviewed by Decrypthe agreed to pay the “talent” – Jenner – $50,000 up front and provide him with 80% of all revenue generated.
It may have been the real deal at first, but Jenner almost immediately cried foul, claiming Arora hadn’t kept her end of the bargain.
“FUCK SAHIL”, Jenner tweeted to a Decrypt journalistwho had asked about Arora. “He scammed us.” Jenner said Decrypt in May that Arora had gone “silent after showing some wire transfers” and that the crypto promoter still owed her “a lot of money.” Arora did not respond to Decryptat the time, but that was just the beginning for Sahil.
After launching a Pump.fun token with the R&B singer Jason Derulowho also claimed to have been bamboozled by Arora, promoter said Decrypt the drama had been “orchestrated”. When asked why Derulo would call him out publicly, Arora said “that’s it.”part of the scenario.”
Arora then threw tokens for rappers Rich the Kid and Lil Pump:all of Who later complained about this experience. Other celebrities then followed suit, with rappers CardiB And Flame Waka Flocka and singer Sean Kingston are also launching their own respective tokens, but without any public participation from Arora.
Data visualization startup Bubbleworks, which took on Arora in a long threadsaid the promoter made $30 million representing celebrities who launched meme coins this year.
“A lot of these tokens launched with obvious red flags from day one,” Nick Vaiman, co-founder and CEO of Bubble cardssaid Decrypt. He pointed to factors such as “heavily controlled supply, malicious intentions and clear strategies to pull the rug out and get rid of retail investors.”
Not every celebrity coin launch ended in tears. The exception was SCENE’s Person of the Year, Australian musician Iggy Azalea. Although his token MOTHER took the heat of Bubble cards As 20% of her supply was destroyed at launch, she claimed this was done without her knowledge. That may be true, but as channel sleuths Bubblemaps pointed out at the time, the only way a token could be sniped in this way is if someone leaks the contract address early. the piece to a group of initiates.
Nonetheless, the tide of perception turned after Azalea organized a Twitter space, demonstrated her knowledge of cryptography, and criticized Arora in the process.
“When we found out she knew what she was doing, we were very optimistic about her,” Alon said. Decrypt. “It was amazing, a great feeling.”
As the months passed, more and more celebrities created tokens and abandoned them. Jenner same launched an Ethereum tokenwhich caused the price of its original Solana token to drop.
So how are these celebrity tokens doing?
At the time of writing, Jenner’s Solana token sits at a market cap of $357,000 while its Ethereum is just $139,000– a fraction of the peak market caps of $42 million and $7.5 million they respectively reached before plunging.
Jason Derulo’s JASON the token is down 97.8% from its peak at a market cap of $783,000, Waka Flocka Flame’s FLOCKA is down 99% at $238,000and extremely bundled WAP is down 99.65% to less than $138,000.
“Most celebrities come here with the worst intentions,” Azalea said. Decrypt. “I don’t think any of them want to create a crypto token. I think they think it’s something they can quickly extract cash from, and then they want to fuck off.
Needless to say, with these tokens crashing and celebrities abandoning their projects, the first lawsuit was filed. In November, a group of investors filed a class action lawsuit against Jenner and her manager Sophia Hutchins, accusing him of having fraudulently presented her Solana same corner and failing to register it as warranty.
Jenner’s team did not respond Decryptrequest for comment.
Some crypto law experts say to prepare for more civil litigation: “We are going to see an increase in lawsuits involving celebrity-endorsed coins,” said one cyber law attorney. Andrew Rossow said Decrypt. “Celebrities will begin to find themselves increasingly liable not only for their promotional activities, but potentially as ‘sellers’ of these digital assets, exposing them to a wider range of legal repercussions. »
“The Jenner lawsuit serves as a clear warning to any celebrity who believes they can use their fame to over-promise and under-deliver on a coin launch for the sole purpose of making a quick buck,” said a lawyer specializing in digital assets. Carlo D’Angelo said Decrypt.
Advocates have touted celebrity meme coins as ideal for onboarding the next generation of crypto traders. Arora, for example, said Decrypt that he started the celebrity meta to make crypto more mainstream than ever.
“For a trend to be successful, it must appeal to the general public and it must generate at least a small number of winners to maintain hope and inspire others. » Vaiman from Bubblemaps is finished. “Instead, celebrity projects have only squeezed cash out of retail, leaving everyone a loser. »
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