2024 Celebrity Meme Coins: A Collective "Faceplant" Show?
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2024 Celebrity Meme Coins: A Collective "Faceplant" Show?
Celebrity crypto projects failed to create a virtuous cycle, instead becoming a mechanism of exploitation.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsSource: Decrypt
Translation: Bitpush News
It's nothing new for celebrities to get involved in cryptocurrency. As early as 2013, former child actor Brock Pierce co-founded Blockchain Capital, setting a precedent for celebrities entering the crypto space. From former U.S. President Donald Trump to actress Lindsay Lohan, public figures across industries have rushed into the market, hoping to cash in on the crypto wave.
However, celebrity influence isn't always a magic solution. Some leverage their fame to promote crypto projects, often with disappointing results. Over the past decade, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has taken action against more than ten cases of celebrities improperly promoting cryptocurrencies—figures like Kim Kardashian and boxer Floyd Mayweather have both faced penalties. More tragically, many celebrities were also deeply entangled in the FTX exchange collapse, a scandal that nearly devastated the entire crypto industry.
If celebrity involvement in crypto is now commonplace, the rise of "celebrity meme coins" in 2024 represents a bold new twist. As meme coins replace NFTs as speculators' latest obsession, numerous stars are jumping in directly, launching their own meme tokens and even attempting to build business models around them.
In just the past year alone, nearly a dozen major Western celebrities have launched their own meme coins. Community reactions have been mixed, but mostly negative.
Traditional investors often assume Bitcoin holders have high risk tolerance, but it’s meme coin enthusiasts who are the true gamblers—living in a Wild West where token prices can skyrocket or crash in an instant.
This frenzy is vividly on display on the meme coin launch platform Pump.fun. Olympic decathlete Caitlyn Jenner kicked off the celebrity meme coin trend by releasing her own token on the platform.
Pump.fun has seen its share of jaw-dropping stunts. One user threatened to kill his pet goldfish unless people bought his meme coin; another vowed to stay seated on a toilet until his token hit a $50 million market cap (he actually shaved off one eyebrow when it reached $10 million). Others have gone further—one young man reportedly “self-castrated.”
At the height of Pump.fun’s popularity in May 2024, Jenner teamed up with then-presidential candidate Donald Trump to publicly launch her token.
The move sparked massive controversy, with many suspecting her social media account had been hacked or that it was an AI deepfake scam. Even Pump.fun’s founders were stunned.
Alon (a pseudonym), co-founder of Pump.fun, told Decrypt: “I was completely shocked.” He described it as one of the craziest moments in the company’s short but wild history: “We tweeted that she’d launched a coin, and then we were like, ‘Wait, did she really?’ I had no idea what was going on. It was insane.”
It later emerged that Jenner’s stunt was orchestrated by crypto promoter Sahil Arora. He had signed a contract with Jenner to issue the token, agreeing to pay her a $50,000 advance and 80% of revenues.
But the partnership quickly turned into chaos. Jenner accused Arora of breaching the agreement and publicly lashed out on Twitter: “F*** Sahil Arora! He scammed us!”
In a May interview with Decrypt, Jenner said Arora disappeared after showing her a few wire transfer records, leaving her owed a “large sum of money.” Arora did not respond to Decrypt’s request for comment at the time.
But this was only the beginning.
After collaborating with R&B singer Jason Derulo to launch a token, Derulo also publicly accused Arora of deception. Arora responded by claiming it was all part of a “script.” He went on to launch tokens for rappers Rich the Kid and Lil Pump—both of whom later reported similar experiences.
Subsequently, other artists like Cardi B, Waka Flocka Flame, and Sean Kingston also launched their own tokens, though they did not publicly acknowledge working with Arora.
Data visualization firm Bubbleworks published a lengthy post on X blasting Arora, claiming he earned $30 million this year alone by facilitating celebrity meme coin launches.
Nick Vaiman, co-founder and CEO of Bubblemaps, told Decrypt: “Many of these tokens had clear red flags from the start—centralized control, obvious manipulation, and blatant ‘pump-and-dump’ schemes.”
Not all celebrity meme coin launches ended in disaster, however. Australian musician Iggy Azalea stands out as an exception. While her token MOTHER drew criticism from Bubblemaps for having 20% of its supply “rugged” at launch, she claimed to be unaware of the incident.
Bubblemaps’ on-chain investigators noted such an attack could only occur if the token contract address was leaked in advance to insiders.
Still, sentiment shifted after Iggy Azalea participated in a Twitter Spaces session, demonstrated her understanding of crypto, and openly criticized Arora.
Pump.fun’s Alon said: “When we realized she actually knew what she was doing, we became huge fans. It felt amazing.”
Over the following months, more and more celebrities launched tokens—only for them to quickly become worthless. Jenner even released an Ethereum-based version of her token, causing the price of her original Solana token to plummet.
So, what is the current state of these celebrity meme coins?
As of writing, Jenner’s Solana meme coin has a market cap of just $357,000—far below its peak of $42 million. Her Ethereum token is valued at only $139,000, down from a high of $7.5 million.
Jason Derulo’s JASON token has dropped 97.8% from its peak, now worth just $783,000.
Waka Flocka Flame’s FLOCKA token has fallen 99%, with a current market cap of $238,000; the bundled token WAP has crashed 99.65%, now worth less than $138,000.
Iggy Azalea told Decrypt: “Most celebrities getting involved are doing so with the worst intentions. I don’t think any of them genuinely want to build a crypto token—they just want to make a quick buck and walk away.”
As these tokens collapsed and celebrities exited, the first lawsuit followed. In November 2024, a group of investors filed a class-action lawsuit against Jenner and her agent, accusing her of making false statements about her Solana meme coin and failing to register it as a security.
Jenner’s team did not respond to Decrypt’s request for comment.
Some crypto legal experts predict more lawsuits are coming. “We’ll see a rise in litigation involving celebrities endorsing meme coins,” Andrew Russo, an internet lawyer, told Decrypt. “Celebrities will increasingly be held accountable for their promotions—and may face broader liability for acting as ‘sellers’ of these digital assets.”
Digital asset attorney Carlo De Angelo said: “The lawsuit against Jenner sends a clear warning to any celebrity who thinks they can exploit their fame to overhype and deliver meme coins purely for fast profits.”
Some crypto advocates argue that celebrity meme coins help bring younger audiences into crypto. Arora, for instance, told Decrypt he ignited the celebrity meme coin trend to make cryptocurrency more mainstream than ever.
But Nick Vaiman, founder of Bubblemaps, offered a sobering assessment: “For a narrative to succeed, it needs universality, hope, and role models. It must resonate broadly and create real success stories to sustain hope and inspire others. But celebrity crypto projects have failed to create this virtuous cycle. Instead, they’ve become predatory mechanisms—extracting liquidity from retail investors and leaving everyone else with nothing.”
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