Celebrities and cryptocurrencies? Nothing new about that, right? Since Brock Pierce — who starred in Walt Disney's The Mighty Ducks as a child — co-founded Blockchain Capital in 2013, some of the world's most famous humans, from Donald Trump to Lindsay Lohan, have turned to cryptocurrencies to see more what... In it for them.

Some celebrities have managed to use their catchy names to pump up existing cryptocurrency projects, with predictable results. The SEC has prosecuted dozens of cases over the past decade, from Kim Kardashian to Floyd Mayweather Jr., who have been fined for their promotional activities. Celebrities were also among Many people have been vilified in the FTX scandal Which practically brought down the crypto industry.

So celebrities being part of cryptocurrencies is nothing new. What He is New, and what has become a dominant theme in the past year, has been the emergence of celebrity currency. As meme coins have replaced NFTs as degenerians' preferred method of gambling, the popular meme coin has emerged, with nearly a dozen stars releasing their own coins in the past year.

These influencers don't just promote coins, they actually create coins in their own image, promote them, and in some cases, try to find business around them. For better, more common is for worse.

Traditional investors often think so Bitcoin Investors have a high tolerance for risk, but meme crypto miners are the true mavericks – launching it into the Wild West with tokens that can rise or fall at any moment.

And nowhere is this more evident than on the popular coin launcher Pump.fun.

It was Olympic runner Caitlyn Jenner who kicked off the celebrity craze by putting her memes out there. It should be noted that Pump.fun is a place where people do outrageous things to get attention. A colleague threatened to do so Kill a goldfish Unless you buy his meme coin; last Threatening to sit on the toilet His token even reached a market cap of $50 million (and he actually shaved off one eyebrow when he reached $10 million). Some went further, including the man who He set himself on fire.

In May, in this circus environment, Jenner decided to launch her iconic symbol, taking a photo with Donald Trump, who was then preparing for re-election.

It's hard to overstate how crazy this moment was — in fact, many people thought there was no way this could be Jenner. Apparently her X account has been hacked. She then posted a video using a strange Snapchat filter, leading some observers to believe it was a deep scam using artificial intelligence. Even the creator of Pump.fun was stunned at first.

“I was pooping my pants,” said Alon, the pseudonymous co-founder of Pump.fun. Decryption. He said the event was one of the craziest moments in the company's short but colorful history: "We tweeted about it — where I launched a coin and stuff — and then we were like, 'Did you even launch a coin?'" I was wondering what was going on. It was weird. very".

It turns out that Jenner's stunt was enabled by a cryptocurrency promoter Sahil Arorawho signed a contract with Jenner promising to launch the token. According to the contract shared and reviewed by Arora DecryptionHe agreed to pay the "talent" - Jenner $50,000 in advance, and provide her with 80% of the total revenue generated.

It may have been the real deal at first, but Jenner cried foul almost immediately, claiming that Aurora wasn't keeping his side of the bargain.

“Fuck Sahil” Jenner Tweet at A Decryption ReporterWho asked about Aurora. "We were deceived." Jenner said Decryption In May, Arora went off the radio after showing some wire transfers that the cryptocurrency promoter still owed her.A lot of moneyAurora did not respond DecryptionHe asked for comment at the time, but that was only the beginning for Sahil.

After launching the Pump.fun icon with the R&B singer Jason Derulowho similarly claimed that Arora cheated on him, said the promoter Decryption The drama was "orchestrated." When asked why Derulo criticized him publicly, Arora said it was all "Part of the script".

Arora then went on to release tokens from rappers Rich the Kid and Lil Pump—everyone to from He later complained about the experience. Then other celebrities followed suit with the rapper Cardi B and Waka Flocka Flame Singer Sean Kingston also launched their own tokens – but without any public involvement from Arora.

Data visualization startup Bubbleworks, which targeted Arora In a long X stringHe said the promoter made $30 million from celebrities who launched the coins this year.

“Many of these tokens launched with clear red flags from day one,” said Nick Vaiman, co-founder and CEO Bubble mapsHe said Decryption. He cited factors such as “a highly controlled supply, malicious intent, and obvious strategies to attract and lure away retail investors.”

Not all famous coin launches end in tears. The exception was SCENE's Person of the Year, the Australian musician Iggy Azalea. Despite its symbol the mom The heat caught from Bubble maps Since 20% of its supplies were sniped at launch, it claimed this was done without its knowledge. This may be true, but as Bubblemaps' on-chain investigators pointed out at the time, the only way to snap up the token in this way is by someone leaking the coin's contract address to a group of insiders early on.

However, things changed after Azalea set up a space on Twitter, showed off her knowledge of cryptocurrencies, and criticized Arora in the process.

“When we found out she knew what she was doing, we were very optimistic about her,” Allon said. Decryption. “It was amazing – a great feeling.”

As the months passed, more celebrities created and abandoned icons. Jenner even Launched Ethereum tokenCausing the price of its native Solana token to collapse.

So how are these celebrity memes?

At the time of writing, Jenner's Solana token is reaching a market cap of $100,000 $357,000 While its Ethereum is at a level $139,000- a fraction of the peak market caps of $42 million and $7.5 million they reached respectively before the decline.

Jason Derulo Jason The token fell 97.8% from its peak to a market cap of $783,000, and Waka Flocka Flame's FLOCKA token fell 99% to $238,000and aggregated WAP service dropped dramatically by a whopping 99.65% to less than $138,000.

“Most celebrities go here with the worst intentions,” Azalea said. Decryption. “I don’t think any of them want to create a cryptocurrency token. I think they think this is something they can extract quick liquidity from, and then they want to get rid of it.”

Needless to say, as these icons collapsed and celebrities abandoned their projects, the first lawsuit was filed. In November, a group of investors filed a lawsuit Class action lawsuit against Jenner and her manager, Sophia Hutchins, accusing her of fraudulently misrepresenting her Solana Mimi coin and failure to register it as collateral.

Jenner's team did not respond DecryptionRequest for comment.

Some cryptocurrency law experts say brace for more civil lawsuits: “We will see an uptick in lawsuits related to celebrity-endorsed meme coins,” the cyber law attorney said Andrew Russo He said Decryption. “Celebrities will begin to find themselves increasingly liable, not only for their promotional activities, but potentially as ‘sellers’ of these digital assets, opening them up to a wide range of legal ramifications.”

“Jenner’s lawsuit serves as a clear warning to any celebrity who believes they can use their fame to over-promise and under-promise a meme coin just to make a quick profit,” the digital asset attorney said. Carlo D'Angelo He said Decryption.

Celebrity Coins has been framed by advocates as great for cultivating the next generation of cryptocurrency traders. Arora, for example, said Decryption He started introducing celebrities to make cryptocurrencies more mainstream than ever before.

“For a trend to succeed, it must appeal to a mainstream audience, and it must generate at least a small number of winners to maintain hope and inspire others.” Vaiman finished Bubblemaps. “Instead, celebrity ventures have only extracted liquidity from retail, leaving everyone losing out.”