Author: Jesse Coghlan, CoinTelegraph; Translated by: Deng Tong, Jinse Finance

Celebrity-themed crypto tokens had a fleeting moment in 2024 as public figures sought to monetize their fame amid a steady rise in cryptocurrency.

But the fleeting 'celebrity meme coins' have seen a sharp decline in value since their launch, or have significantly dropped from their peak.

Let's take a look at those meme celebrity tokens that were launched in 2024 but quickly faded away.

Caitlyn Jenner's JENNER

Former Olympic athlete Caitlyn Jenner launched her eponymous Caitlyn Jenner (JENNER) token via 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 videos that have now been deleted to ensure she wasn't hacked are considered deep fakes, as other celebrities, including Jenner's former stepdaughter Kim Kardashian, have faced severe crackdowns from the SEC for promoting crypto tokens.

Bubblemaps stated that in later celebrity token launches, a batch of wallets held a quarter of the token supply and sold out early, netting $500,000.

Jenner blamed Arora for the early price drop of the token, claiming he deceived her team. She then launched the token on Ethereum, which according to CoinGecko has now essentially lost all its value, down 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, MOTHER peaked at 23 cents in early June but has since fallen about 87%, trading at around 5 cents for most of this year.

MOTHER briefly broke 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 every day on X and Telegram.

The now-retired rap star also tried to give the meme coin 'utility' by launching an online crypto casino called Motherland just days before Christmas, which accepted the token, and relaunched her telecom company Unreal Mobile, whose phones and plans accepted MOTHER.

Crypto analytics firm Bubblemaps claims that MOTHER saw internal activity at launch, with a handful of wallets purchasing 20% of the supply before quickly dumping it, earning $2 million in profit.

Earlier this year, lawyers indicated that U.S. residents Azalea and other American celebrities could conflict with the local securities commission, which claims that most crypto tokens are securities.

Hawk Tuah (HAWK)

Haliey Welch went viral in June after the launch of the controversial Hawk Tuah (HAWK) meme coin, and her slogan gained popularity again.

HAWK launched in December, and Bubblemaps analysis indicated that internal wallets purchased the token and then dumped a large amount at launch.

Welch denied her team was involved in any insider activity, but by then, HAWK had already become a PR nightmare, with community comments on her X posts noting that the token was already a bust.

She 'copied and pasted' HAWK's token distribution and issuance timeline.

Welch and her token team—including Alex Shultz, known as 'Hollywood Doctor', who runs a crypto consulting company for celebrities called Memetic Labs—then livestreamed on X, with an investigation led by YouTube investigator Stephen Finders, also known as Coffeezilla.

The livestream was later removed from X.

Sharks began to position themselves in the drama, as lawyers rounded up 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 made her first public statement since the release on December 20 to avoid being mentioned in the lawsuit, stating that she is assisting with the class-action lawsuit regarding the tokens and urging HAWK holders to contact the law firm leading the lawsuit.

Other celebrity meme coins

It is claimed that more celebrities promoted tokens this year, but these tokens have now fallen from their peak and have been accused of widespread insider trading, among other things.

The artist Jason Desrouleaux's eponymous token Jason Derulo (JASON) also followed a similar release pattern, with its price crashing and being accused of internal distribution.

JASON has fallen more than 98% from its peak, and Derulo last posted about the token in September, having not posted about it for the previous two months.

American rapper Cardi B (Belcalis Cephus) launched her WAP (WAP) token in October.

WAP has fallen 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.