Celeb tokens that burned bright, then burned out in 2024

Celebrity-themed crypto tokens had a flash-in-the-pan moment in 2024, with publicly-known figures looking to cash in on their fame amid a steady crypto rally.

But the short-lived “celeb meta” has seen the tokens plummet in value since launch or are down significantly from their peak highs, and their celeb backers have, in some cases, seen their creations possibly land them in court.

Let’s take a look at some of the tokens that burned bright before fizzling out soon after in 2024. 

Caitlyn Jenner pioneers celeb memecoin meta

Former Olympian Caitlyn Jenner was one of the pioneers of 2024’s celeb memecoin craze, launching her self-titled Caitlyn Jenner (JENNER) token through the Solana memecoin launcher Pump.fun in late May.

The launch was clouded by confusion, as many thought Jenner’s X account had been hacked. 

Even now-deleted videos assuring she wasn’t hacked were written off as deepfakes as other celebrities, including Kim Kardashian — Jenner’s former stepdaughter —  had been hit hard by the SEC for promoting crypto tokens.

In what became a familiar story with later celeb token launches, Bubblemaps said a cluster of wallets held a quarter of the token’s supply at launch and sold early to bag $500,000.

Jenner pinned the blame for the token’s early price drop on Arora, claiming he scammed her team. She then launched the token on Ethereum, which has now essentially lost all its value and is down 98.5% from its peak, per CoinGecko.

Jenner was hit with a class-action lawsuit in November over her promotion of the tokens, with a complaint alleging she and her manager, Sophia Hutchins, “fraudulently solicited financially unsophisticated investors […] to purchase the unregistered securities.”

Cointelegraph reached out to Jenner via her website in November, and Hutchins could not be reached for comment at the time.

Mother Iggy 

Iggy Azalea (real name Amethyst Kelly), an Australian rapper best known for her decade-old hit Fancy, launched her instant-hit Mother Iggy (MOTHER) token in May amid a sea of controversial celeb token launches allegedly carried out by Sahil Arora.

MOTHER was launched after Azalea had alleged Arora launched a token using her likeness. MOTHER hit a peak of 23 cents in early June, but it’s now down around 87% from that and has traded at around 5 cents for the majority of the year, per CoinGecko.

It’s not for a lack of trying on Azalea’s part. She — or someone on her team — has made posting about the token a full-time job with countless posts about it on X and Telegram every day.

The now-retired rap star has also tried to give the memecoin “utility” by launching an online crypto casino called Motherland just days before Christmas that accepts the token and re-launched her telco Unreal Mobile that accepts MOTHER for its mobiles and plans.

Crypto analytics firm Bubblemaps claimed MOTHER saw insider activity upon its launch, with a handful of wallets buying up 20% of the supply before Azalea publicly announced it, the wallets then immediately dumped their bags for $2 million in profits.

Lawyers told Cointelegraph earlier this year that Azalea — a United States resident — and other American celebs could run afoul of the local Securities and Exchange Commission which has claimed most crypto tokens are securities.

Cointelegraph is still waiting for a response from Azalea’s manager.

Time to “Talk tuah” lawyer

Haliey Welch, a Southern belle who went viral in June for her response in a vox pop interview posted to YouTube about an oral sex technique, went viral all over again after the controversial launch of the Hawk Tuah (HAWK) memecoin styled off her catchphrase.

HAWK launched on Dec. 4 and immediately lost nearly all of its value, with Bubblemaps’ analytics alleging insider wallets and snipers bought up and then dumped massive quantities of the token at launch.

Welch denied that her team was part of any insider activity, but by then, HAWK was a PR nightmare, with Community Notes on her X posts pointing out that the token was already a bust.

Welch’s team went into damage control, which saw her “copy and pasting” HAWK’s token allocations and release schedule.

Welch and her token team — which included Alex Shultz, AKA “Doc Hollywood,” who runs Memetic Labs, a crypto advisement company for celebs — then took to a livestream on X that was railroaded by investigative YouTuber Stephen Findeisen, known as Coffeezilla.

The livestream was later erased from X.

The crypto project OverHere — billed as the “official platform” for HAWK — distanced itself from the HAWK launch and essentially pinned all blame on Shultz in a series of Dec. 16 X posts.

Related: Celebrities boost crypto projects but don’t guarantee legitimacy

Sharks started to circle in the midst of the drama with lawyers rounding up HAWK buyers, who launched a class-action lawsuit on Dec. 20 against Shultz, OverHere, its founder Clinton So and the Tuah the Moon Foundation, a group behind the token.

Welch dodged being named in the suit and made her first public statement since the launch on Dec. 20 to say she was assisting in the class suit over the token and urged HAWK bagholders to contact the law firm leading the complaint.

Other celeb coins

Many more celebs allegedly promoted tokens this year, which have now tanked from their peaks and were accused of having large insider trades, including artists Lil Pump (Gazzy Garcia), Waka Flocka Flame (Juaquin Malphurs), Davido (David Adeleke) and French Montana (Karim Kharbouch) to name a few.

Jason Derulo (JASON), the namesake token of the artist whose real name is Jason Desrouleaux, also followed a similar pattern of launching, its price tanking and being accused of having insider allocations.

JASON is down over 98% from its high, and Derulo last posted about the token in September after not doing so for the prior two months.  

American rapper Cardi B (Belcalis Cephus) launched her WAP (WAP) token in October, which is the title of her hit 2020 track that stands for “Wet-Ass Pussy.”

WAP has tanked 99.7% from its peak and was accused of having sent over half the token allocation to insiders. Cardi B has only made about five direct X posts about the token in total so far.

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