On Monday, Lionel Messi’s Instagram account suddenly posted a story that appeared to promote the Solana Mimecoin WATER.
Messi’s Instagram account has 504 million followers, making him the second most-followed person on the planet after footballer Cristiano Ronaldo.
An Instagram account linked to the WATER memecoin also shared the story in a post showing a photo of Messi with the Memecoin logo peeking over his shoulder. Memecoin’s X page has over 185,000 followers, but the post had not appeared as of Monday afternoon.
According to CoinGecko data, WATER surged more than 55% immediately after Messi’s Instagram post, but has since given back half of those gains. Without further confirmation from Messi or his team, the promotion of Mimecoin is similar to the mysterious claim made earlier this month that legendary professional wrestler Hulk Hogan had promoted a similar Mimecoin.
The post promoting Hogan’s Mimecoin was immediately deleted, and the wrestler denied any involvement. After Hogan’s X account post was deleted, Mimecoin lost approximately $15 million in market cap.
The Block attempted to contact WATER Mimecoin and Messi team officials but was unsuccessful.
Collaborating with BEER memecoin creators
According to a link to the WATER Mimecoin website, this Mimecoin was created “in collaboration with the founders” behind Solana Mimecoin BEER, which experienced extreme volatility last month.
“WATER is a meme coin with no intrinsic value or expectation of financial return.” According to the memecoin website, the token can also be purchased and traded on Bitget, BitMart, and MEXC.
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About the Author
RT Watson is a senior reporter at The Block, covering a wide range of topics including corporate America, blockchain gaming, and NFTs. Previously, he covered entertainment at The Wall Street Journal, writing about Disney, Netflix, Warner Bros., and the creator economy, with a focus on technological disruption across media. Prior to that, he covered corporate, economic, and political news in Brazil at Bloomberg. RT has interviewed a wide range of people, including CEOs, media moguls, major influencers, politicians, blue-collar workers, drug dealers, and convicted criminals. He holds a Master’s degree in Digital Sociology.