Original Title: "Celeb tokens that burned bright, then burned out in 2024"
Author: Jesse Coghlan, CoinTelegraph
Translation by: Deng Tong, Golden Finance
Celebrity-themed crypto tokens experienced a fleeting moment in 2024, as public figures sought to capitalize on their fame amid a steady rise in cryptocurrency.
However, the fleeting "celebrity meme coins" have seen their value plummet since their launch, or significantly drop from their peak.
Let’s take a look at those meme celebrity tokens that vanished without a trace in 2024.
Caitlyn Jenner's JENNER
Former Olympic athlete Caitlyn Jenner launched her namesake Caitlyn Jenner (JENNER) token at the end of May through the Solana memecoin launcher Pump.fun.
The release was overshadowed by chaos, as many believed Jenner's X account had been hacked.
Even a now-deleted video assuring that she was not hacked was viewed as a deepfake, as other celebrities, including Jenner's former stepdaughter Kim Kardashian, faced severe repercussions from the SEC for promoting crypto tokens.
Bubblemaps indicated that in later celebrity token launches, a batch of wallets held a quarter of the token supply and sold out early, netting $500,000.
Jenner blamed the early price drop of the token on Arora, claiming he deceived her team. She then launched the token on Ethereum, which according to CoinGecko, has now essentially lost all its value, down 98.5% from its peak.
In November last year, Jenner faced a class-action lawsuit for promoting these tokens, with allegations that she and her manager Sophia Hutchins "fraudulently solicited financially immature investors […] to purchase unregistered securities."
Mother Iggy
Australian rapper Iggy Azalea (real name Amethyst Kelly), known for her hit single "Fancy" from a decade ago, launched the trendy Mother Iggy (MOTHER) token in May, reportedly part of a controversial series of celebrity token launches initiated by Sahil.
MOTHER was launched after Azalea accused Arora of using her likeness to launch the token. According to CoinGecko, MOTHER peaked at 23 cents in early June but has since dropped about 87%, trading around 5 cents for most of the year.
MOTHER briefly broke through 20 cents shortly after its launch but has failed to rise again since. Source: CoinGecko
This is not due to a lack of effort from Azalea. She—or someone on her team—has made posting about the token a full-time job, with countless posts about it daily on X and Telegram.
The now-retired rap star also attempted to give the meme coin "utility" by launching an online crypto casino called Motherland a few days before Christmas, which accepted the token, and relaunched her telecom company Unreal Mobile, which accepted MOTHER for its phones and plans.
Crypto analysis firm Bubblemaps claimed that MOTHER saw internal activity at launch, with a few wallets purchasing 20% of the supply before Azalea publicly announced it, and then those wallets immediately sold off, making a profit of $2 million.
Earlier this year, lawyers indicated that U.S. resident Azalea and other American celebrities might clash with the local SEC, which claims that most crypto tokens are securities.
Hawk Tuah (HAWK)
Haliey Welch rose to fame in June after launching the controversial Hawk Tuah (HAWK) meme coin, which brought her slogan back into the spotlight.
HAWK launched in December, and Bubblemaps analysis indicated that internal wallets purchased the token and then sold off large amounts at launch.
Welch denied her team was involved in any internal activity, but by then, HAWK had become a public relations nightmare, with community comments on her X posts noting that the token was already a bust.
She "copied and pasted" the token distribution and issuance timeline for HAWK.
Welch and her token team—including Alex Shultz, also known as "Hollywood Doctor," who runs a crypto consulting firm for celebrities called Memetic Labs—then went live on X, which was later streamed by YouTube investigator Stephen Finders (aka Coffeezilla).
The live stream was subsequently removed from X.
Sharks began to position themselves in this farce, as lawyers targeted HAWK buyers, who filed a class-action lawsuit on December 20 against Shultz, OverHere, its founder Clinton So, and the organization behind the token, Tuah the Moon Foundation.
To avoid being mentioned in the lawsuit, Welch made her first public statement since the launch on December 20, stating that she was assisting with the class-action lawsuit regarding the token and urging HAWK holders to contact the law firm leading the lawsuit.
Other Celebrity Meme Coins
It is claimed that more celebrities promoted tokens this year, but these tokens have now fallen from their peak and have been accused of large-scale insider trading, among other things.
The artist Jason Desrouleaux's namesake token Jason Derulo (JASON) followed a similar launch pattern, with its price crashing and accusations of internal distribution.
JASON has dropped over 98% from its peak, and Derulo last posted about the token in September, having not posted about it for the previous two months.
American rapper Cardi B (Belcalis Cephus) launched her WAP (WAP) token in October.
WAP has dropped 99.7% from its peak and has been accused of allocating more than half of the token supply to insiders. So far, Cardi B has only posted about the token approximately 5 times on X.
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