The rise and fall of celebrity tokens: Over 99% of value wiped out

Author: Josh O'Sullivan, CoinTelegraph; Compiled by Wuzhu, Golden Finance

Recent celebrity token launches on the Solana blockchain have shocked new investors as most tokens have dropped in value by more than 99%.

Famous figures including 50 Cent, Caitlyn Jenner, Andrew Tate, Iggy Azalia and Barron Trump have backed the launch of tokens, prompting fans and followers to invest.

The prices of more than 30 celebrity-endorsed tokens launched on Solana in June have fallen by no less than 73.23%.

Only a Few Remain Valuable

An article published on X by cryptocurrency analyst Slorg revealed the dismal performance of these celebrity coins, noting that only a few celebrity coins have managed to hold onto more than 25% of their value.

According to the analyst, even the “best performing” celebrity coins “are down more than 70%, but the extent of the losses is staggering.”

“Half of them are down over 99%, and seven are down over 90%. Mind you, this is only the last month.”

Scammers, insiders, buyers… oh my!

From Jason Derulo denying the sale of his JASON tokens to Waka Flocka Flame’s FLOCKA token insider activity, the celebrity coin space is fraught with uncertainty for investors.

In a written Q&A, Waka Flocka addressed past promotions of dubious crypto projects and undisclosed paid promotions.

“My previous management would bring me seemingly real projects in early 2021, but the team did not do what they said they would. I will now do my own due diligence and homework.”

Despite promises of future due diligence, the program will not compensate unsuspecting investors who lost money in past scams, nor those who suffered losses from the recent CelebrityCoin crash.

50 Cent X Account Hacked to Promote Scam

On June 21, Curtis James Jackson III, who goes by the moniker 50 Cent, claimed that his X account and website were hacked to promote the cryptocurrency pump and dump (PnD) token scam.

The fraud developers used Jackson’s X account to create the PnD token (GUNIT) to attract investments from the celebrity’s 12.9 million followers, and the funds were then stolen.

Jackson posted to his Instagram followers on June 21 that he had “nothing to do with this cryptocurrency,” and Twitter immediately locked his account after being alerted to the incident.