Azalea Takes on Buterin: Are Celebrity Cryptos Here to Stay?

• Celebrity crypto tokens have seen an explosion in recent weeks. 
• Prominent crypto personalities are not happy with the trend. 
• Launching tokens is so easy, that even celebrities can do it. 

The involvement of celebrities in the cryptocurrency space has grown significantly. Just after influencer, Catelyn Jenner launched a dozen crypto tokens, Iggy Azalea stepped in with her own token. While celebrity involvement was first seen as great publicly, the problems quickly became apparent, with scams and pump-and-dumps running rampant. 

Since then, numerous high-profile crypto insiders, including Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin and Solana’s Anatoly Yakovenko started speaking up against the trend. However, celebrities are not relenting, and it looks like they’re here to stay. 

Launching Tokens So Easy, Even Celebrities Can Do It

In late May, rapper and model Iggy Azalea launched her MOTHER memecoin, aiming to capitalize on her popularity. Boosted by a meme storm carefully crafted to appeal to the crypto crowd, the token shot up 859% since launch. It is currently commanding a market cap of $141 million. 

Celebrities have been involved in crypto and NFTs before, with notable “pioneers” including Snoop Dogg, Paris Hilton, and Logan Paul. However, the recent spike in celebrity tokens has taken it to another level. The cause of this is likely just how easy launching tokens has become. 

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This is especially true for Solana, thanks to its low fees, enabling users to launch tokens for just a few dollars. However, what really supercharged the trend was the launch of pump.fun. This website enables users to launch a token with just a few clicks, making it dramatically easier than before. 

This lower barrier to entry means anyone can do it, including celebrities. However, this has opened another can of worms, giving rise to pump and dumps, scams, and insider trading. These issues have prompted crypto insiders, including Ethereum’s Co-founder Vitalik Buterin, to push back. On Wednesday, June 5, he questioned whether celebrity memecoins bring anything useful to the community. 

However, Azalea wasn’t having any of it. Instead of relenting, she opted to portray him as a “hangry” baby in her tweet, in line with the MOTHER brand, to the delight of at least some in the crypto community. 

The Very Real Problems With Celebrity Tokens

Despite the success of Azalea’s MOTHER token, crypto insiders quickly raised concerns. According to several reports, the token saw insider trading , with some traders acquiring 20% of the token’s supply before Azalea’s announcement. This led to substantial profits for insiders. A community note on X also suggested that Azalea may be misleading her fans about her token position. 

Source: X

Other recent celebrity crypto tokens were even more controversial. Notably, after launching a dozen crypto tokens in a week, Jenner fell victim to a self-named crypto promoter Sahil Arora. As the person in charge of launching Jenner’s Solana token, Sahil quickly dumped liquidity on investors, causing the token to collapse. 

With no need to rely on technical teams, crypto insiders can do little to prevent celebrities from leveraging their influence to earn millions off the backs of their fans—that is, unless regulators get involved. 

On the Flipside

• Buterin was not the only one to call out memecoins with no utility. Earlier, Solana’s co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko urged investors not to buy memecoin presales, which were just based on hype. 
• Despite warnings from major figures in crypto, traders have an appetite for memecoins. Trading volumes on Solana are at an all-time high, largely thanks to memecoins. 

Why This Matters

The involvement of celebrities highlights the trend of mainstream figures embracing crypto, and, in the case of Azalea, the crypto culture. Still, it also highlights the risks involved with inexperienced actors in crypto. 

Read more about failed celebrity tokens: 
Jenner Token Faces Disaster Days After Launch, Tokens Dumped

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