Four-time Grammy Award-nominated artist Iggy Azalea It entered the cryptocurrency arena this year with its own digital currency, the mom. But unlike many of her celebrity counterparts, the project wasn't a quick cash grab. In fact, she is redefining what it means to be a cryptocurrency celebrity, and paving the way for others.

Not that it's been a smooth ride for the Australian rapper. Her crypto journey has been plagued by some of the worst that crypto has to offer, including drama, red candles, personal anxiety, and anxiety. Copius sniped at the moralizing of industry observers.

After azalea Solana The MOTHER meme coin has become the gold standard for celebrity tokens as the musician continues to try to increase the value of the token by increasing her presence and taking a personal interest in building the project and its platform. The artist's challenge and drive to fight through tough times, during a major price decline, is a first in the new world of celebrity coins – a sparkling example in crypto of how fame can be used to build, rather than plunder.

For these reasons, and as one of the most visible cultural icons in the cryptocurrency space over the past year, Azalea received the 2024 SCENE Person of the Year Award.

Azalea's adventure into cryptocurrency began while smoking pot on the balcony with her brother in May, she said. Decryption. During a series of high-profile conversations, the Australian musician began learning the basics of cryptocurrencies, sparking her curiosity about the industry.

She soon saw a vision of how a celebrity meme coin could work, and asked her manager if it was possible for her to launch a meme coin – practically and legally.

Of course it did, and it did, but Azalea's first foray into space quickly created drama.

May is not fun

To prepare for the token launch and get a better understanding of best practices, an Azalea manager reached out to Sahil Arora- A famous currency promoter, who was later found to be reliable He was interrogated By some, including media personality and short-lived collaborator Caitlyn Jenner.

Arora and Azalea's team had a brief discussion about what a potential collaboration could look like — payment, tweet requirements, technical details, etc. According to the emails that Arora sent to her DecryptionApparently Azalea's manager wasn't sure about the joint venture. But in the end, Arora claims, the team came up with the idea and sent $40,000 via bank transfer. (Decryption I saw no evidence of payment.)

Arora also began receiving funds via his Telegram group in exchange for what was then described as the soon-to-be-launched IGGY token. Insiders paid him $380,000 in In pre-sale. When Azalea learned of this unapproved token use of her trademark, she took to Twitter to publicly criticize Arora in a series of now-deleted tweets; Aurora continued to claim that his IGGY token was the real deal, which infuriated her even more.

"Something like revenge motivates me greatly," Azalea explained. "When he kept talking about it, he was like, 'This is real and she's kidding'... I was like, 'Man, I'm going to have to bend you over and fuck you right now.' ""

So Azalea launched her own Solana meme coin called MOTHER via the launchpad pump. fun After hours. He - she rose To a market value of less than $260 million In less than two weeks — the highest level any token created by a celebrity has reached.

It is also doomed to failure IGGY, which launched and It immediately fell to almost nothing. Now six months later, IGGY Participants in the pre-sale stage We have yet to receive any tokens or refunds, which Arora said was due to dust and his coin's MOTHER token being overrun: "It's too late, you've already flipped us over and pooped (...) so (it) doesn't make sense."

“It's very culturally relevant and he's with it,” said Alon, the pseudonymous co-founder of coin launch platform Pump.fun. Decryptionexplaining how impressive Azalea's knowledge of cryptocurrencies was. “It made us very optimistic outside of Crypto Twitter. We knew there was something here for the fans. We absolutely loved it.”

Mother's Day

But everything that goes up must come down.

Mother crashed 82% over the next month. The broader market has slowed down and the celebrity meta has started to die off as more celebrities give up their coins. The Azalea token traded mostly sideways for another two months.

“I felt like I was falling out of a plane without a parachute,” Azalea said. Decryption. “It was a rude awakening, to be honest with you.”

Fears that this is just another famous icon that has faded into obscurity are beginning to surface. Unlike celebrities of the past, Azalea has remained active. She said she logs into Telegram daily to comfort people with tokens Official group chat.

“I had to control people's emotions in the chat,” Azalea said. She wanted to persuade MOTHER holders to “maintain trust in something that is new to people, that has no proven track record, and establish that trust quickly in those volatile circumstances.”

It was a difficult environment. The normal course of celebrity coins was for celebrities to jump ship once the waters became choppy. Jenner's coins were a new example. He was a former Olympian too Launched two meme coins In May, that fell into oblivion once the community started turning against her and she stopped cashing out tokens.

But Azalea vowed that the mother would not follow that path. Fear, uncertainty and doubt were no strangers – these had been her companions throughout her music career – she said she decided to do what she always did: pull it out and fight through it.

“It's an addiction to some kind of chemical in my brain, and I think I was addicted to it for a long time, maybe because I'm an artist and I've retired from that part of my life,” she said. Decryption.

"You get a lot of adrenaline and dopamine when you're on stage," she added. "There's also this kind of weird tension or anxiety that comes in moments of not knowing. And that part of it, in a silly way, is as addictive as the dopamine reward part."

So Azalea got stuck there. She would check the market daily and micromanage the Telegram chat, something she said she still does to this day. On days when the code drops, she said she feels a pit of anxiety in her stomach — the same feeling she's felt throughout her music career when she's waiting for an album release, a Grammy nomination, or waiting backstage before a big show.

That's a big part of why she's stuck with crypto: "I really need it," she said. "It's part of what keeps me up and happy in the morning. I fucking love it."

But beyond the psychological and emotional rewards, and unlike most other celebrities who issue tokens for quick cash, Azalea had an actual plan to promote her coin — and maybe, just maybe, turn it into something bigger. Its goal was to push MOTHER to the top of the coin market and turn it into a token alongside the likes baby.

To this end, it began implementing its plan at Token 2049, the largest cryptocurrency conference in Asia, in October. There, she threw the mother of all parties-Homeland Rodeo Party. Azalea hired 36 women to dance on stage and with the audience, in a venue decorated with cowboy trappings — a Western-style saloon, hay bales, and more. Her celebrity appeal attracted a crowd of influencers, of course, and as the night raged, plenty of clips went viral — including Three Arrows Capital CEO Su Zhu, Making it rain dollar bills Above a dancer.

Of course, it wouldn't be Azalea without drama: At one point, organizers of Solana Breakpoint — another conference being held in Singapore at the same time — warned her not to dance along with the dancers during her scheduled talk because “It will spread very quicklyThere was some opposition from across the cryptocurrency industry, with those who did not attend calling it “Shrinks"and"sucker".

Azalea ignored everything. “Cryptocurrencies will be a huge success,” she tweeted, delighting her followers.

Putting its ass into cryptocurrencies did the trick: in the 10 days following its party, MOTHER pumped out more than 157%.

She attributes her success in part to the kind of chaos that stars bring to the lives of celebrities in the United States, and she intends to double that success. She intends to use the rodeo party as a model for three themed events annually moving forward.

“I want to bring chaos to popular cryptocurrency culture,” Azalea explained.

But her vision of the mother did not stop there. on December 20"Mother's Project"Soft launched“Online casino called motherlandwhich plans to feature live streams of models and other celebrities, with whom gamblers can gamble MOTHER tokens in real time.

The musician believes that this will be a platform that can revolutionize how celebrities engage with cryptocurrencies. Instead of clueless celebrities creating tokens that they throw away in a few weeks, they could sign a streaming deal with Motherland to engage with the culture.

Of course, execution is everything, especially in the cryptocurrency space. But so far, Azalea seems to be learning hard and fast, and seems to be as addicted to the meme world as the most experienced quacks, while bringing the glamor of celebrity to cryptocurrencies.

She brings fun to culture through events and is determined to change the way the rich and famous enter the scene. This isn't just a monetary grab, it's an emotional addiction, similar to her music career.

“I don’t want to leave the space. I want to be the first one in every way, shape or form,” she added. “I want to be a crypto legend!” She seems to be well on her way.