Celebrity-themed cryptocurrency tokens are having a breakout moment in 2024, with household names trying to make a name for themselves amid the steady cryptocurrency rally.
However, the short-lived “celebrity meta” has seen the value of tokens plummet or fall significantly from their highs since launch, and celebrity backers have seen their creations potentially taken to court in some cases.
Let’s take a look at some of the tokens that were burning brightly before they expire soon in 2024.
Caitlyn Jenner pioneered the celebrity memecoin meta.
Former Olympian Caitlyn Jenner is one of the pioneers of the 2024 celebrity memecoin craze, launching her self-proclaimed Caitlyn Jenner (JENNER) token through Solana memecoin launcher Pump.fun in late May.
The launch was clouded by confusion as many people thought Jenner’s X account had been hacked.
As other celebrities, including Jenner’s ex-stepdaughter Kim Kardashian, have come under fire from the SEC for promoting cryptocurrency tokens, a now-deleted video of her confirming she wasn’t hacked was also recorded as a deepfake. .
Bubblemaps, which later became a familiar story for celebrity token launches, said a cluster of wallets held a quarter of the token supply at launch and sold early for $500,000.
source: bubble map
Jenner placed the blame for the token’s initial price drop on Arora, claiming he had deceived her team. She then launched the token on Ethereum, which has now essentially lost all its value and is down 98.5% from its peak, according to CoinGecko.
Jenner was hit with a class action lawsuit last November over her token promotions, with complaints alleging that she and her manager Sophia Hutchins “fraudulently solicited financially unsavvy investors (…) to purchase unregistered securities.” I raised the issue.
Cointelegraph contacted Jenner through his website in November, but was unable to contact Hutchins at the time.
Being a mother
Iggy Azalea (real name Amethyst Kelly) is an Australian rapper best known for her hit songs of the decade. fancyAmid controversy over the launch of celebrity tokens purportedly done by Sahil Arora, it launched the instant hit Mother Iggy (MOTHER) token in May.
MOTHER was released after Azalea claimed that Arora used her likeness to release tokens. MOTHER hit a high of 23 cents in early June, but is currently down about 87% from that and has been trading around 5 cents for most of the year, according to CoinGecko.
MOTHER topped 20 cents for a short period of time upon release, but has not recovered since. source: CoinGecko
It’s not for lack of effort on Azalea’s part. She or members of her team have made posting about tokens a full-time job, with numerous posts on X and Telegram every day.
The now-retired rap star also tried to give memecoins “utility” by launching an online cryptocurrency casino called Motherland that accepts the token just before Christmas, and by relaunching Unreal Mobile, a carrier that accepts MOTHER on mobile and plans. .
A typical post from Azalea about her tokens. source: Iggy Azalea
Cryptocurrency analytics firm Bubblemaps witnessed MOTHER’s inner workings at launch and claimed that a handful of wallets bought 20% of the supply before Azalea announced it publicly, after which the wallet immediately left the bag for a $2 million profit. .
Lawyers told Cointelegraph earlier this year that Azalea, a U.S. resident, and other U.S. celebrities could run afoul of the local Securities and Exchange Commission, which holds that most cryptocurrency tokens are securities.
Cointelegraph is still awaiting a response from Azalea administrators.
It’s time to “Talk tuah” with the lawyer.
Southern belle Haliey Welch, who went viral for her reaction to a vox pop interview posted on YouTube about oral sex techniques last June, is going viral again following the controversial launch of the Hawk Tuah (HAWK) memecoin styled after her catchphrase. paid.
HAWK lost almost all its value immediately after its release on December 4th. Analysis by Bubblemaps suggests that internal wallets and snipers bought up tokens and then dumped huge amounts of them at launch.
source: bubble map
Welch denied that his team was involved in any internal activities, but HAWK was a PR nightmare at the time, and a community note on X’s post pointed out that the token was already bankrupt.
Welch’s team went into damage control, finding themselves “copying and pasting” HAWK’s token allocation and release schedule.
For those of you who aren’t online, “Talk Tuah”, as mentioned in the community notes, is Welch’s podcast. source: harley welch
Welch and her token team, which includes Alex Shultz, aka “Doc Hollywood,” who runs Memetic Labs, a cryptocurrency advisory firm for celebrities, participated in X’s livestream hosted by investigative YouTuber Stephen Findeisen, known as Coffeezilla.
The live stream was later removed from X.
OverHere, a cryptocurrency project billed as HAWK’s “official platform,” distanced itself from HAWK’s launch and placed all the blame on Shultz in a series of X posts on December 16.
relevant: Celebrities boost cryptocurrency projects but do not guarantee their legitimacy.
HAWK buyers are starting to get the Sharks in the middle of the drama, with lawyers launching a class-action lawsuit on December 20 against Shultz, OverHere, founder Clinton So and the Tuah the Moon Foundation, the group behind the token.
Welch avoided being named in the suit and made his first public statement since its launch on December 20, saying he was assisting with a class action lawsuit against the token and urging HAWK bag owners to contact the law firm that led the complaint.
Other Celebrity Coins
More celebrities have promoted the token this year, including artists Lil Pump (Gazzy Garcia), Waka Flocka Flame (Juaquin Malphurs), Davido (David Adeleke) and French Montana, who have now reached a peak and been accused of engaging in large-scale insider trading . (Karim Kharbouch) Let me give you some examples.
Jason Derulo (JASON), a token named after the artist whose real name is Jason Desrouleaux, followed a similar launch pattern, plummeting in price and being accused of internal allocation.
JASON is down more than 98% from its peak, and Derulo last posted about the token in September after not posting for the past two months.
American rapper Cardi B (Belcalis Cephus) launched the WAP (WAP) token last October. This is the title of her 2020 hit song, which stands for “Wet-Ass Pussy.”
WAP is down 99.7% from its peak and has been accused of sending more than half of its token allocation to insiders. Cardi B has made a total of five direct X posts about the token so far.
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