Review of Celebrity Meme Coins in 2024: A collective "street fight" show?

Source: Decrypt

Compiled by: BitpushNews

Celebrities getting involved in cryptocurrencies is nothing new. As early as 2013, child star Brock Pierce co-founded Blockchain Capital, marking the first time for celebrities to enter the crypto field. Celebrities from all walks of life, from former U.S. President Donald Trump to celebrity Lindsay Lohan, are rushing in to try to cash in on the cryptocurrency wave.

However, celebrity power is not always a panacea. Some people use their influence to advocate for crypto projects, but the results are often unsatisfactory. In the past decade, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has taken action against more than a dozen celebrities for illegally promoting cryptocurrencies, and Kim Kardashian and boxing champion Mayweather have all been punished for this. What is even more embarrassing is that many celebrities are also involved in the collapse scandal of the FTX exchange. This storm almost destroyed the entire encryption industry.

If celebrities' participation in cryptocurrency is still a "cliché", then the "celebrity meme (meme) currency" craze that will arise in 2024 can be called a "new trick." As meme coins replace NFTs and become the new favorite of speculators, a large number of celebrities have followed suit, personally issued their own meme coins, and even tried to build business models around these tokens.

In the past year alone, nearly a dozen big-name European and American celebrities have launched their own meme coins. Community feedback has been mixed, with more negative impacts.

Traditional investors often think of Bitcoin investors as having a high risk tolerance, but meme coin enthusiasts are the real risk takers - like being in the Wild West, the price of the token in their hands can skyrocket or plummet in an instant.

This madness is on full display on the meme coin issuance platform Pump.fun. Olympic decathlon champion Caitlyn Jenner launched her own meme coin on the platform, kicking off the celebrity meme coin craze.

There have been many stories on Pump.fun that "ruined the three views". One user once threatened to end the life of a little goldfish if his meme coin wasn't bought; another threatened to sit on the toilet until his token's market value reached $50 million (when the market value reached $10 million He actually shaved off one of his eyebrows). Some people have taken more extreme actions, such as a young man who committed suicide.

When Pump.fun was booming, in May 2024, Jenner joined hands with Trump, who was actively preparing for his campaign at the time, to issue his own token with a high profile.

This move caused huge controversy, and many people even suspected that Jenner's social account was stolen, or that it was an AI deep fake scam. Even the founder of Pump.fun was surprised.

"I was going crazy," Pump.fun co-founder Alon (pseudonym) said in an interview with Decrypt. He called it one of the craziest moments in the company's short but exciting history: "We tweeted that she posted coins, and then we were all confused, ‘Did she really send coins?’ I had no idea what was going on, it was crazy.”

It turns out that the driving force behind Jenner’s “farce” is crypto promoter Sahil Arora. He signed a contract with Jenner, promising to issue tokens for him, and agreed to pay an advance payment of $50,000 and an 80% revenue share.

However, the collaboration soon turned into a farce. Jenner accused Arora of breach of contract and publicly swore on Twitter: "F...k Sahil Arora! He lied to us!"

In an interview with Decrypt in May, Jenner said that Sahil Arora "disappeared" after showing several wire transfer records and owed her "a lot of money." Arora did not respond to Decrypt's request for comment at the time.

But this is just the beginning.

After teaming up with R&B singer Jason Derulo to issue a token, Derulo also publicly accused himself of being deceived by Arora. Arora responded that it was all "part of the script". Since then, Arora has issued tokens for rappers Rich the Kid and Lil Pump. As a result, these stars have also complained about similar experiences.

Later, stars such as rappers Cardi B, Waka Flocka Flame and Sean Kingston also issued their own tokens, but did not publicly collaborate with Arora.

Data visualization company Bubbleworks posted a long post on social platform

Nick Vaiman, co-founder and CEO of Bubblemaps, said in an interview with Decrypt: "Many tokens have obvious red flags from the beginning, such as high levels of market control, malicious manipulation, and obvious 'cutting leek' strategies."

Of course, not all celebrity meme coin issuances end in farce. Australian musician Iggy Azalea is an exception. Although her token MOTHER was questioned by Bubblemaps for being "sniped" by 20% of the supply when it was issued, she claimed that she had no knowledge of this.

Bubblemaps’ on-chain sleuths noted that this could only have happened if the token contract address had been leaked to insiders in advance.

However, the tide of public opinion changed after Iggy Azalea participated in a Twitter Spaces event, demonstrated her understanding of encryption, and publicly criticized Arora.

Alon, the founder of Pump.fun, said: "When we found out that she really knew her stuff, we were very optimistic about her. It felt great."

After a few months, more and more celebrities issued tokens, which then became junk coins. Jenner even issued an Ethereum token, causing the price of her original Solana token to plummet.

So, what’s the current status of these celebrity meme coins?

As of this writing, the market value of Jenner’s Solana meme coin is only $357,000, while the market value of her Ethereum token is only $139,000, well below the previous peaks of $42 million and $7.5 million respectively.

Jason Derulo’s JASON token fell 97.8% from its peak, with its market value shrinking to $783,000;

Waka Flocka Flame's FLOCKA token fell by 99%, with a market value of only US$238,000; the bundled token WAP plummeted by 99.65%, with a market value of less than US$138,000.

Iggy Azalea said in an interview with Decrypt: “Most celebrities are involved in this with the worst intentions. I don’t think any of them really want to do crypto tokens, they just want to cash out quickly and then walk away. Of."

As these tokens collapsed and celebrities walked out, the first lawsuits came. In November 2024, a group of investors filed a class-action lawsuit against Jenner and her agent, accusing her of misrepresenting her Solana meme coin and failing to register it as a security.

Jenner's team did not respond to Decrypt's request for comment.

Some cryptocurrency legal experts say more such civil lawsuits may arise in the future. “We’re going to see an uptick in lawsuits involving celebrity endorsements of meme coins,” cyber law attorney Andrew Russo told Decrypt in an interview. “Celebrities will increasingly be held accountable for their promotional activities and may even face broader legal liability as ‘sellers’ of these digital assets.”

Digital asset lawyer Carlo D'Angelo said: "Jenner's lawsuit is a clear warning to any celebrity who thinks they can use their fame to over-promise and deliver meme coins just to make a quick buck."

Some crypto advocates believe celebrity meme coins can help attract young people to crypto. For example, Arora once told Decrypt that he started the celebrity meme coin craze in order to make cryptocurrencies more mainstream than ever before.

Nick Vaiman, founder of Bubblemaps, concluded: “For a narrative to be successful, it needs universality, hope, and role models. It needs to be able to appeal to the masses and create real success stories that sustain hope and inspire others. However, celebrity crypto projects fail Establishing such a virtuous cycle has instead become a predatory mechanism, squeezing liquidity from retail investors and causing everyone to lose everything.”