Author: Jesse Coghlan, CoinTelegraph; Translated by: Deng Tong, Jinse 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 coin' has seen the value of the token plummet straight down or drop significantly from its peak since launch.
Let's take a look at those meme celebrity tokens that went silent without launching 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 a now-deleted video ensuring she was not hacked is viewed as deepfake material, as other celebrities, including Jenner's former stepdaughter Kim Kardashian, have faced severe backlash 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 off early, earning $500,000.
Jenner placed the blame for 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), known for her hit single 'Fancy' from ten years ago, launched the trendy Mother Iggy (MOTHER) token in May, reportedly 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 data, MOTHER peaked at 23 cents in early June but has now fallen about 87%, trading around 5 cents for most of the year.
MOTHER briefly broke above 20 cents shortly after its launch but has since failed to rise again. Source: CoinGecko
This is not due to a lack of effort from Azalea. She—or someone on her team—has treated posting about the token as a full-time job, with countless posts about the token daily on X and Telegram.
The now-retired rap star also tried to give the meme coin 'utility', launching an online crypto casino named Motherland that accepts the token just days before Christmas, and relaunching her telecom company Unreal Mobile, whose phones and plans accept MOTHER.
Cryptocurrency analytics firm Bubblemaps claims that MOTHER saw insider activity at launch, with a few wallets purchasing 20% of the supply before Azalea publicly announced it, then immediately dumping the tokens for a profit of $2 million.
Earlier this year, lawyers indicated that American 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, and her slogan became popular again.
HAWK launched in December, with Bubblemaps analysis suggesting insider wallets bought the token and then dumped large amounts at launch.
Welch denies her team was involved in any insider activities, but by that time, HAWK had already become a PR nightmare, with community comments on her X posts indicating the token had already turned into a bust.
She 'copied and pasted' the token distribution and release timeline of HAWK.
Welch and her token team—including Alex Shultz, aka 'Hollywood Doctor', who runs a cryptocurrency consulting company for celebrities called Memetic Labs—then went live on X, which was streamed by YouTube investigator Stephen Finderson, aka Coffeezilla.
The live broadcast was later removed from X.
Sharks began positioning themselves in this farce, with lawyers targeting HAWK buyers, who filed a class-action lawsuit against Shultz, OverHere, its founder Clinton So, and the organization behind the token, Tuah the Moon Foundation, on December 20.
Welch made her first public statement since launching on December 20 to avoid being mentioned in the lawsuit, stating she is assisting with the class-action lawsuit regarding the token and urging HAWK holders to contact the law firm leading the case.
Other celebrity meme coins
Reportedly, 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) also followed a similar launch pattern, with its price plummeting and accusations of internal distribution.
JASON has dropped more than 98% from its peak, with Derulo last posting about the token in September, having not posted anything about it in the two months prior.
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 distributing over half of the tokens to insiders. So far, Cardi B has only posted about the token on X approximately five times.