Celebrity meme coin insider trading sparks debate about mainstream crypto adoption
Crypto community divided over celebrity token launches and potential exploitation.
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A recent spree of meme coins launched by celebrities on Solana sparked a discussion in the crypto community on spreading crypto awareness among the mainstream, as all the efforts this week showed insider trading signs.
As reported by Crypto Briefing, the on-chain data tracker Bubblemaps identified “huge insider activity” on the token Mother Iggy (MOTHER), as an address accumulated the token before Australian rapper Iggy Azalea promoted the meme coin via her X profile. The insider amassed a $2 million profit. The same happened with the token JENNER, promoted by former athlete Caitlyn Jenner, who started this celebrity-tied token movement.
Furthermore, Nigerian singer Davido launched his token DAVIDO and, as highlighted by the X user identified as Wazz, he held a part of the token supply and slowly sold whenever the price peaked. Blockchain sleuth ZachXBT also accused Davido of promoting previous projects that ended in losses for their investors, such as RapDoge, Echoke, and Racksterli.
Even rapper Trippie Redd launched a token called BANDO, and ZachXBT pointed out that the addresses with the largest holdings of BANDO were all funded before the contract was made public.
As a result, a part of the crypto community on X started voicing their worries about giving the spotlight to celebrities so they could create tokens and make quick profits. On the other hand, notorious figures such as Solana bull known as Ansem believe having celebrities in crypto is a good sign, despite the clear signs of insider trading in their token offerings.
Edward Wilson, analyst at Nansen, shared with Crypto Briefing that although he doesn’t think that these celebrities’ efforts are scams, their intentions are not good either.
“Meme coins can be fun. But they can vary. For example, we have ‘blue-chip’ meme coins like DOGE, PEPE, and WIF which are forms of tokenizing culture or communities, then you have meme coins that are outright scams. While these recent low-tier efforts by celebrities who are way beyond their prime aren’t scams, their intentions are not good. Their goal is to extract as much as they can in as little time as possible. This isn’t a good thing.”
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