Original title: (Celeb tokens that burned bright, then burned out in 2024)

Author: Jesse Coghlan, CoinTelegraph

Compiled by: Deng Tong, Golden Finance

Celebrity-themed crypto tokens experienced fleeting moments in 2024 as public figures sought to cash in on their fame amid a steady rise in cryptocurrency.

But the fleeting 'celebrity meme coins' have seen a straight drop in value since launch or have sharply declined from their peak.

Let's take a look at those meme celebrity tokens that disappeared without a trace in 2024.

Caitlyn Jenner's JENNER

Former Olympic athlete Caitlyn Jenner launched her namesake Caitlyn Jenner (JENNER) token through the Solana memecoin launcher Pump.fun at the end of May.

This release was overshadowed by chaos as many believed Jenner's X account had been hacked.

Even the now-deleted video ensuring she was not hacked is viewed as a deepfake, as other celebrities, including Jenner's former stepdaughter Kim Kardashian, have faced severe scrutiny from the SEC for promoting crypto tokens.

Bubblemaps indicates that in later celebrity token launches, a batch of wallets held a quarter of the token supply and sold it early for $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 value, dropping 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) is known for her hit single (Fancy) from ten years ago, and she launched the trendy Mother Iggy (MOTHER) token in May, reportedly as part of a series of controversial 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 since failed to rise again. Source: CoinGecko

This is not due to Azalea's lack of effort. She – or someone on her team – has made posting about the token a full-time job, with countless posts about the token on X and Telegram every day.

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 accepts the token, and relaunched her telecom company Unreal Mobile, whose phones and plans accept MOTHER.

Crypto analysis company Bubblemaps claims that MOTHER saw internal activity at launch, with a few wallets buying 20% of the supply before Azalea made her announcement, and the wallets immediately sold, making a profit of $2 million.

Earlier this year, lawyers indicated that U.S. resident Azalea and other U.S. celebrities might run into conflict with the local SEC, which claims that most crypto tokens are securities.

Hawk Tuah (HAWK)

Haliey Welch gained popularity in June after launching the controversial Hawk Tuah (HAWK) meme coin, and her slogan became popular again.

HAWK was launched in December, and Bubblemaps analysis states that internal wallets bought the token and then dumped a large amount when it was released.

Welch denies that 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 had already become a bust.

She 'copied and pasted' the token allocation and issuance schedule of HAWK.

Welch and her token team – which includes Alex Shultz, known as 'Hollywood Doctor,' who runs a cryptocurrency consulting firm for celebrities called Memetic Labs – then went live on X, with an investigation by YouTube investigator Stephen Finders, aka Coffeezilla.

The live broadcast was later removed from X.

Sharks began to position themselves in this farce, as lawyers targeted HAWK buyers, launching a class action lawsuit on December 20 against Shultz, OverHere, its founder Clinton So, and the organization behind the token, Tuah the Moon Foundation.

Welch has made her first public statement since December 20 to avoid being mentioned in litigation, stating that she is 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 alleged that more celebrities promoted tokens this year, but these tokens have since fallen from their peak and have been accused of large-scale insider trading and more.

The artist Jason Desrouleaux's namesake token Jason Derulo (JASON) also followed a similar issuance pattern, with its price plummeting and accusations of internal allocation.

JASON has dropped over 98% from its peak, and Derulo last posted about the token in September, with no prior posts in the two months before.

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 tokens to insiders. So far, Cardi B has only posted about the token on X about 5 times.