Brightly burned, then burned Kleb tokens in 2024
Celebrity-focused crypto tokens had a flashback moment in 2024, with celebrities seeking to monetize their fame amid a steady stream of crypto.
But the short-lived “celebrity meta” has seen the tokens drop in value or drop significantly from their highs since their launch, and their celebrity backers have seen their creators take them to court in some cases.
In the year Let's take a look at some of the signs that burned before it was extinguished shortly before 2024.
Caitlyn Jenner pioneers memecoin meta
Former Olympian Caitlyn Jenner was one of the pioneers of the popular memecoin craze of 2024, launching her own Caitlyn Jenner (JENNER) token through Solana memecoin startup Pump.fun at the end of May.
The startup was thrown into confusion as many thought that Gen X's account had been hacked.
Now-deleted videos proving she wasn't hacked have been written off as profound lies by other celebs, including Kim Kardashian, Jenner's ex-stepdaughter – who were hit hard by the SEC for promoting a crypto token.
In what's become a common story with later celeb token launches, the Bubblemaps wallet collection held a quarter of the wallet's token supply at launch, and were already selling $500,000 per wallet.
Source: Bubblemap
Jenner blamed Aurora for the token's early price drop, claiming her team was defrauded. Then she launched the token on Ethereum, which has now lost all its value and is down 98.5% from its peak, according to CoinGecko.
Jenner was hit with a class-action lawsuit promoting the tokens in November, alleging that she and her manager, Sophia Hutchins, “fraudulently solicited financially unsophisticated investors.” […] “To purchase unregistered documents”.
Cointelegraph reached out to Jenner through her website in November, and Hutchins could not be reached for comment at the time.
Mother Iggy
Iggy Azalea (real name Amethyst Kelly), the Australian rapper best known for her ten-year-old fancy, instant hit mother Iggy, launched her label in May amid a sea of controversial celebrity tokens allegedly created by Sahil Arora.
Mother started after Arora accused Arora of using her avatar. Mother reached a peak of 23 cents in early June, but is now down 87% and has traded around 5 cents for most of the year on CoinGecko.
Mom had a run of over 20 cents shortly after it started, which it hasn't been able to catch again since. Source: CoinGecko
Azalea is not for lack of trying. She – or someone on her team – has made a full-time job of posting about the token, making countless posts on X and Telegram every day.
The now-retired rap star also tried to give MemCoin a “utility” just days before an online crypto casino called Motherland accepted the token and relaunched Unreal Mobile, a telco that accepts Motherland for mobile and its plans.
A typical post from Azalea on her token. Source: Iggy Azalea
Crypto analytics firm Bubblemaps said it saw insider activity when the mother launched, with a few wallets buying 20% of the supply before Azalea announced it publicly, and the wallets immediately dumped their wallets with a $2 million profit.
Lawyers told Cointelegraph earlier this year that Azalea – a resident of the United States – and other American celebrities could run from the local Securities and Exchange Commission, which it says are securities of most crypto tokens.
Cointelegraph is still waiting for a response from Azalea's manager.
When “Tuah” lawyer
Hallie Welch, the Southern belle who went viral in June for her vox pop interview posted on YouTube about oral sex techniques, has gone viral again after the controversial HAWK memecoin launch interrupted her speech.
HAWK launched on December 4th and immediately lost all of its value, with Bubblemaps analytics showing insider bags and shooters buying and dropping large amounts of token at launch.
Source: Bubblemap
Welch denied her team was part of any insider activity, but at the time, HAWK was a PR nightmare, and community notes on her X posts suggested the token was already a mess.
Welch's team went through damage control that saw her “copy and paste” HAWK's token allocation and release schedule.
For those not online, “Talk Tuah” mentioned in the community note is Welch's podcast. Source: Haley Welch
Welch and her token team — which included Alex Schultz, AKA “Doc Hollywood,” who runs Memetic Labs, a crypto consulting firm for celebrities — then took to a live stream on the researcher YouTube Railroad by YouTuber Stephen Findison, known as Cofizilla.
The live stream was later deleted from X.
Crypto project OverHere — billed as the “official forum” for HAWK — distanced itself from HAWK's launch and placed all the blame on Schultz in a series of posts on December 16.
RELATED: Celebs Promote Crypto Projects But Don't Ensure Legitimacy
Sharks circled in the middle of the drama, rallying HAWK buyers on Dec. 20 to file a class-action lawsuit against Schultz, Overhere, founder Clinton So, and the Tua The Moon Foundation, the group behind the token.
Welch declined to be named in the lawsuit and gave her first public statement since it was filed Dec. 20, saying she is helping the class action suit and urging HAWK bag owners to contact the law firm handling the complaint.
Other famous coins
This year many celebrities are said to have introduced fakes, now accused of massive insider trading, artists Lil Pump (Gazi Garcia), Waka Flocka Flame (Juaquin Malfers), Davido (David Adeleke) and French Montana (Karim Karbuch) to name a few. As much as
JASON, whose real name is Jason Desroleau, the artist's trademark, is also accused of owning startups, price-tankers, and insiders.
JASON is down more than 98% from its peak, and Derulo posted last September about the token not doing so for the past two months.
American rapper Cardi B (Belkalis Cephus) debuted her WAP (WAP) label in October, which is the title of her 2020 hit track, “Wet-as-Pussy.”
WAP has risen above 99.7% and is accused of sending more than half of its token allocation to insiders. Cardi B has only done about five Live X posts in total about the token.
Magazine: Influencers Shilling memecoin scams face serious legal consequences.
