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

Author: Jesse Coghlan, CoinTelegraph

Translated by: Deng Tong, Golden Financial.

Celebrity-themed crypto tokens experienced a fleeting moment in 2024, as public figures sought to leverage their fame to profit amid the steady rise of cryptocurrencies.

But the fleeting 'celebrity meme coin' has seen its value plummet since its launch or drop significantly from its 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 a now-deleted video ensuring she was not hacked was viewed as deepfake, as other celebrities, including Jenner's former stepdaughter Kim Kardashian, faced harsh repercussions 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 early, netting $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 CoinGecko reports has now essentially lost all its value, down 98.5% from its peak.

Last November, Jenner faced a class-action lawsuit for promoting these tokens, with accusations claiming that she and her manager Sophia Hutchins 'fraudulently solicited financially immature investors [...] to buy unregistered securities.'

Mother Iggy

Australian rapper Iggy Azalea (real name Amethyst Kelly), known for her hit single 'Fancy' from a decade ago, launched the trendy Mother Iggy (MOTHER) token in May, which was 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 dropped about 87%, trading around 5 cents for most of this year.

MOTHER briefly broke through 20 cents shortly after its launch but has since failed to rise again. Source: CoinGecko

This is not for lack of trying from Azalea. 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 just days before Christmas, which accepts the token, and relaunched her telecom company Unreal Mobile, which accepts MOTHER for its phones and plans.

Cryptocurrency analysis firm Bubblemaps claims that MOTHER saw internal activity at launch, as a handful of wallets purchased 20% of the supply before Azalea publicly announced, and then the wallets immediately sold off, netting $2 million in profits.

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

Hawk Tuah (HAWK)

Haliey Welch rose to prominence in June after launching the controversial Hawk Tuah (HAWK) meme coin, bringing her slogan back into the spotlight.

HAWK launched in December, with Bubblemaps analysis indicating that internal wallets bought the token and then sold off large quantities at launch.

Welch denied her team was involved in any internal activities, but by that time, HAWK had already become a PR nightmare, with community comments on her X posts indicating that the token was already a ghost.

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

Welch and her token team—including Alex Shultz, also known as the 'Hollywood Doctor', who runs a cryptocurrency consulting company for celebrities called Memetic Labs—subsequently went live on X, with a broadcast done by YouTube investigator Stephen Finderson, also known as Coffeezilla.

The livestream was later deleted from X.

Sharks began to position themselves in this farce, as lawyers targeted HAWK buyers, initiating 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 December 20 release to avoid being mentioned in lawsuits, 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 now 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 release pattern, with its price plummeting and accusations of internal allocations.

JASON has dropped over 98% from its peak, with Derulo's last post about the token being in September, having not posted any information for the previous two months.

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 5 posts regarding the token on X.