Author: Frank, PANews
The MEME market has welcomed a group of special guests.
Recently, a number of celebrities such as Caitlyn Jenner, IGGY AZALEA, and Davido have entered the cryptocurrency market and issued their own MEME coins. On May 28th, Caitlyn Jenner, a former Olympic champion and an important member of the Kardashian family, issued a token named $JENNER, which sparked the pursuit of cryptocurrency players. Subsequently, the female rapper Iggy Azalea issued a token named MOTHER, and the Nigerian rapper Davido issued the DAVIDO token.
These tokens have all attracted market attention in a short period of time. Among them, $JENNER saw the highest increase of 698 times, and MOTHER saw an increase of up to 644 times. Within a few days of issuance, the market value of these tokens had basically reached several million dollars, but then these tokens experienced an average drop of more than 80% from their peak. Are these celebrity MEME coins a new code for wealth, or are they just another "scythe" with a halo?
Who is the real mastermind behind the scenes
On the evening of May 27th, a MEME coin named $JENNER was launched on Pump.fun, and then Caitlyn Jenner posted a tweet with the link. Initially, people thought this was another RUG scam after a hacker stole the Twitter account, because the creator sold all of their tokens shortly after the opening. It wasn't until Caitlyn Jenner and team members posted a video confirming that the token was indeed released by her. Iggy Azalea went through a similar process, confirming her personal release of the token on Twitter three hours after its release. This operational process left room for possible early layout and attracted attention through repeated topics. Therefore, discussions about the mastermind behind the celebrity MEME coins have been rampant on social media, and there are several key figures behind the promotion of this series of tokens.
The first mastermind to emerge was a person named Sahil Arora, who is the creator of $JENNER and MOTHER. Sahil has gained notoriety in the cryptocurrency field for manipulating MEME prices multiple times. In an interview with Decrypt, he stated, "I have connections with almost all celebrities," and claimed that he deployed the $JENNER token. Through his associated Twitter account @Habibi_Comm, described as "an influential marketing company that connects celebrities with suitable projects and releases them in cryptocurrency!" Sahil Arora stated on Twitter that in addition to making Caitlyn Jenner and Iggy Azalea rich, he is also promoting the issuance of MEME tokens by more celebrities. From his tweets, it does appear that several celebrities interacted with him, but more interactions with celebrities such as Paris Hilton and KATY PERRY only remained at his unilateral retweeting of their tweets. The entire cryptocurrency community is also filled with condemnation of Sahil Arora, and when Caitlyn Jenner and Iggy Azalea responded to rumors of whether they were working with him, they also denied it.
In addition to Sahil Arora, another cryptocurrency KOL, Ansem, and the American rapper Soulja Boy are also involved. Ansem was identified as the behind-the-scenes operator for Iggy Azalea. According to a user @miladyalchemist, in a Space, Iggy Azalea asked, "How many times do you think we can pump the token in a pump and dump or in any other way before people notice?" Ansem replied, "Cryptocurrency users can be abused multiple times, and if it can bring them money, they will still come back for more abuse." He also suggested that Iggy Azalea wear developer socks and cat ears to attract attention. Iggy stated that she would contact Soulja Boy to plan together.
When responding to others' doubts in Space, Soulja Boy said, "Buy my tokens, make some money, and then shut up." According to @zachxbt, Soulja Boy has been involved in promoting MEME coins at least 73 times and 16 NFT airdrops, and almost all of the projects he promoted almost went to zero or plummeted after the pump, and he often deleted related content afterwards to disassociate himself. Previously, he was sued by the SEC for illegally selling TRX and BTT.
In addition, the official Solana has also been considered as the promoter of celebrity Memes, and has even tweeted a welcome to DAVIDO, which, along with the token's decline, has sparked strong dissatisfaction in the community.
Celebrities issuing MEME coins is not a good business
As cryptocurrency holders became a group sought after by both Trump and Biden during the presidential campaign, more and more celebrities seem to see issuing MEME coins as a lucrative business, but reality seems to prove otherwise.
Unlike celebrities entering the cryptocurrency industry and issuing NFTs in 2021, issuing MEME coins is fast and efficient, and the cost of designing NFTs can even be saved. Thanks to the popularity of the one-click token issuance tool Pump.fun, this round of celebrity MEME coins has basically been concentrated on the Solana chain. If everyone can issue MEME coins, then the technical threshold will no longer be a problem for MEME tokens, and influence will become a more critical factor.
As for the motives of these celebrities issuing MEME coins, Caitlyn Jenner claimed in a SPACE that she entered the cryptocurrency field because of the depreciation of the US dollar, and she believes that cryptocurrency is the best way to preserve assets. In addition, Caitlyn Jenner is also a supporter of Trump, and she stated that if the market value of the JENNER token issued on the Ethereum chain reaches $50 million, she will donate to the Trump team. However, shortly after Caitlyn Jenner released the token, she sold 250 SOL (worth about $41,500), seemingly lacking confidence in her own cryptocurrency assets. According to @lookonchain monitoring, Caitlyn Jenner's deployment address released 12 tokens in the following 4 days, earning $400,000.
From an economic perspective, MEME seems to be a quick and profitable business. Within 11 hours of launching the token, Davido sold $430,000 and still holds $207 worth of tokens. According to a Twitter user @PixSorcerer, Davido had previously promoted 6 projects, including RapDoge, and sold $300,000 to fans.
For celebrities with greater influence, relying on MEME coins to harvest users seems to be more trouble than it's worth, as the traces of MEME coins on the chain are traceable, and the profits are not as high as imagined. Iggy Azalea still holds the MOTHER token, and apart from destroying a portion, she still holds tokens worth about $170,000. Iggy Azalea stated on Twitter, "I just feel like doing something positive will be very popular," and she also stated that if a rug situation arises, she will continue to burn her tokens.
In addition, there is also the risk of being harvested by the operating team when celebrities issue MEME coins. A Twitter user stated that MEME tokens launched on pump.fun by several entertainment stars such as Soulja Boy and Rich The Kid are all linked to Arora's wallet address. If this is true, it would prove that Sahil Arora may indeed be the driving force behind the Jenner token, and the quick sale of tokens in a short period of time is also his operation. Perhaps to break away from Sahil Arora, Caitlyn Jenner chose to reissue a token on the Ethereum chain on May 30th.
Most people do not approve of celebrities issuing coins
As of now, the wave of celebrities issuing coins has not ended. NBA star Paul Millsap tweeted, " @IGGYAZALEA, let me know more about @solana! I want to introduce it to some of my NBA boys.." Another music superstar, Katy Perry, who has 106 million followers on Twitter, posted an "LFG" on May 31st, sparking speculation that she might launch a MEME coin. Previously, Katy Perry interacted with the audience on stage using pizza on Bitcoin Pizza Day.
The celebrities who have issued MEME coins have received mostly negative reviews. PANews conducted a poll on social media, "How do you view overseas celebrities/internet celebrities crossing over to issue #MEME?" 65.7% of users chose "Big scythe, cut and run, resolutely resist," while only 6.6% of users believed "It's also a form of promotion."
In fact, since 2017, including Davido, Adin Ross, Lindsay Lohan, and others, 7 celebrities have promoted fraudulent crypto assets. Lindsay Lohan was sued by the SEC and paid a fine of $614,000 for this.
Looking at the history of celebrities issuing crypto assets, whether it's Jay Chou's Phanta Bear or Stephen Chow's Nobody, both have fallen below their issuance prices, resulting in disappointment for their fans. Uniswap's co-founder Hayden Adams suggested that celebrities should do something for investors through MEME coins: "Celebrity coins are not necessarily bad in concept, they just executed poorly. Who will be the first to launch a token and do something real and interesting with it without giving up on it?"
Perhaps, truly loving and using influence to bring new vitality to the crypto world is the best way for celebrities to enter the crypto world. Merely repeatedly harvesting with a meaningless token will only result in overdrawing trust and fishing in troubled waters.
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