Ronaldinho joins Messi in introducing water-themed Solana memecoin.
Ronaldinho Gaucho is the latest football legend to introduce the Solana Token Water Coin (Water) on Instagram, following a similar post from Lionel Messi X's account yesterday.
His July 9 Instagram story showed his 76.6 million followers a photo of a water coin mask resting on his shoulder, marking the token Instagram tag.
An hour after Ronaldinho's post, Water rose 38.8% to $0.0012, but has since fallen below $0.00083, according to CoinGecko data. The price is now down 71 percent from its June 26 all-time high.
The price of water is up 158% since Messi posted it on Instagram on June 8, sharing an image similar to Ronaldinho's post.
Water Coin is focused on raising awareness of water-related issues, including supporting sustainable projects that prevent deforestation and help distribute water in Africa, according to its website.
Watercoin's roadmap outlines plans to form celebrity partnerships before becoming a philanthropic-focused environmental token to achieve its goals.
With the Water Foundation believed to have distributed only 5 percent of the 88.88 billion Water tokens, YouTuber Ajay Kashyap was among industry critics who described Water as a pump-and-dump token.
“Is this real or just another pump and dump,” added crypto analyst Ponga. “Be careful guys.”
The Brazilian Ronaldinho appeared in front of a Brazilian parliamentary committee investigation in August and used his likeness for 61 million dollars.
The program “18kRonaldinho” promised investors a daily return of 2% and used images of the retired soccer star in its marketing.
Ronaldinho claims he has no involvement in the project and has no affiliation with the project, arguing that he is a victim of the use of his likeness without his consent.
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It comes as several high-profile crypto tokens are launching and promoting, including former Olympian Caitlyn Jenner.
UFC fighter Khazmat Chimaev recently posted a video on Instagram using his name — Khazmat Chimaev (SMASH) — to promote himself, but said he has no involvement with memecoin.
According to crypto sleuth ZachXBT, the SMASH token distribution had characteristics of a pump-and-dump scheme, with the SMASH team reportedly owning 78% of the supply.
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