If you pay even a little attention to American variety shows, you should be familiar with the Kardashian family. Whether it’s the daily routines of the three sisters flaunting their wealth and cosmetic surgery or the jaw-dropping drama of their stepfather’s transition and their mother’s infidelity, the reality show “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” has become a sensational and addictive presence. The members of the Kardashian family have become well-known internet celebrities.
And recently, a member of the Kardashian family has entered the cryptocurrency world, creating a frenzy of drama reminiscent of the Kardashians. At 4 a.m. on May 27th, Caitlyn Jenner, the stepfather of the Kardashian sisters, suddenly posted a photo on her X account shaking hands with Donald Trump, with the caption “make america great again!!! and we love crypto!” She also included a link to the $Jenner token on the token generation platform pump.fun. In addition, Caitlyn Jenner tagged a series of senior players in the crypto community, such as Ansem, Paul, and SolJakey, to promote the token.
This stepfather is no ordinary person. Originally known as Bruce Jenner, he was a former American Olympic athlete who won the decathlon gold medal. He later married Kris Jenner, the mother of Kim Kardashian, and together they raised five children. At the age of 65, he underwent gender reassignment surgery and officially became Caitlyn Jenner. Caitlyn can be considered one of the most representative transgender individuals in American history, with 3.36 million followers on the X platform.
Due to her immense influence, the news immediately caught the attention of the crypto community. Within half an hour of going online, the Jenner token skyrocketed 15 times, and after an hour, it had increased 70 times, becoming the star token on pump.fun.
However, on the other hand, despite the fact that it is not uncommon for celebrities to launch tokens, there were some cautious individuals in the community who believed that this was just another case of an account being hacked, especially with the recent GCR hacking incident. They called for rational buying.
The facts seemed to confirm these suspicions. One hour later, the token developer suddenly sold tokens worth 160 SOL from the liquidity pool, causing Jenner to plummet. The community felt uneasy, and curses and insults flew. Just as Jenner was heading towards zero, Caitlyn Jenner once again appeared to give the token a boost.
Caitlyn updated her Instagram account with a snap, stating “7 million dollars in one hour, the team is Caitlyn Jenner and Sophia Hutchins (Jenner’s manager)”. Sophia also retweeted the snap, and Caitlyn started interacting with everyone on the X platform, emphasizing that her account had not been hacked.
With Caitlyn’s real-life appearance, the token price continued to rise, soaring more than 6 times. Perhaps satisfied with the upward trend, 30 minutes later, Caitlyn appeared on the X platform again and posted a video of herself, admitting that she was the one who launched the token and that she was currently playing golf and enjoying her vacation and would not be participating in the team’s upcoming Space event.
The real-life appearance obviously increased credibility, and the token price continued to rise, increasing by 70% within minutes. However, cautious members of the community raised new concerns, speculating whether the video could be a deepfake. Why else would the developers sell tokens?
Deepfakes are not unfamiliar to the public. They use neural network technology to learn from large samples and use machine learning models to synthesize false content, such as a person’s voice, facial expressions, and body movements, in videos. In other words, AI can replace a person’s face and mimic their voice in a video, with no distinguishable difference from the real person. There have been numerous cases of deepfakes in recent months, such as the video of “Indian Prime Minister Modi dancing to popular Bengali music” during the Indian elections.
Doubts arose again, and the token price started to plummet, experiencing a 70% drop in a short period of time. Just when the situation seemed to be getting out of control, Caitlyn held a Space event on her X account, and her manager Sophia spoke on her behalf to dispel the rumors. With strong evidence, the previous claims of deepfake fraud began to be deleted, and the token’s market value surpassed $4 million and reached $20 million. In the multiple reversals within these 2 hours, the Jenner token had increased 35 times compared to its initial launch price.
Just when everyone thought things had settled down, the market took another 180-degree turn. The manager announced that another token would be released. For those who had bought the token for its popularity and exposure, the value of the first token would inevitably plummet. With this expectation, Jenner faced another sell-off, dropping 70% in half an hour.
The situation became dire, but Caitlyn once again came to the rescue, emphasizing that the team would only focus on $Jenner and would not launch any other tokens. By the third reversal, the token had only been online for a little over 2 hours. At 8:20 am, Caitlyn posted a new video on her official account, celebrating the token reaching a market value of millions of dollars in just 4 hours and stating that there was no fakery involved, the cryptocurrency was real.
At this point, retail investors finally cast aside their doubts, and the token soared, reaching an increase of over 160 times at its peak. Traders began to share their successful trades, but the drama continued.
At 2 am on May 38th, Caitlyn once again unexpectedly announced the launch of a new pump token, BBARK. After the news broke, JENNER plummeted from $0.027 to $0.011 in an instant. Caitlyn then urgently deleted the tweet and later updated it with an advertisement disclaimer, stating that it was the promotion of other tokens and was a response to the previous claim of not launching other tokens.
Like Jenner, BBARK experienced a bloodbath of skyrocketing market value followed by a continuous decline. Jenner started to recover and has now regained lost ground, currently trading at $0.01872 with a market value stable at $20 million. Caitlyn is continuously posting messages about cryptocurrency and tokens on Twitter. Some have jokingly said, “You’ve conquered the entire crypto market in 48 hours.”
Big rises and falls are common in the cryptocurrency world, but the multiple reversals in such a short period of time make the Kardashian family unique. The discussion about celebrities entering the crypto world is ongoing in the community. Supporters believe that this move can promote the widespread use of cryptocurrencies and introduce more well-known figures to promote crypto, such as the more controversial Kim Kardashian. Opponents argue that being publicly manipulated and having every move tied to token prices is not a good thing, and some even jokingly suggest that it violates securities laws.
This is not unfounded. In recent years, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been cracking down on KOL marketing of cryptocurrency projects. In October 2022, Kim Kardashian was paid $1.3 million to settle charges brought against her by regulatory agencies for promoting and endorsing cryptocurrencies without disclosing her relationship with the currencies. Following this, several other celebrities, including Floyd Mayweather and Lindsay Lohan, have been fined by the SEC for similar reasons.
Although Caitlyn openly admits to being the issuer and marketer of the token, her multiple reversals in the market raise suspicions of potential violations of securities laws, especially since many MEME tokens themselves are not exempt from securities scrutiny. In reality, with just a few casual words, a token can gain a market value of millions, and retail investors’ hard-earned money can easily be influenced. Is this really legal?
Turning to celebrities, in fact, besides holding cryptocurrencies directly, most celebrities who entered the crypto market early on started with NFTs. During the height of the NFT craze, well-known idols in China, such as Chen Kun, Jay Chou, Jaycee Chan, Ekin Cheng, and Wilber Pan, launched their own NFT projects, many of which achieved sky-high prices due to the celebrity effect. However, as time went on, almost all celebrity NFTs fell flat.
Not long ago, a netizen questioned on Chen Kun’s social media platform whether his 2426CNFT project was no longer operational. Looking at recent developments, the NFT “Nobody” launched by Stephen Chow in January this year had a trading volume that exceeded 3,500 ETH overnight, and the floor price skyrocketed from 0.15 ETH to nearly 0.98 ETH, but it has now dropped to 0.108 ETH.
It can be seen that the celebrity effect is undoubtedly a double-edged sword. It can quickly accumulate a large following, but it can also easily become a tool for cutting leeks. Especially for current celebrities, when they launch a token or NFT, they often have little understanding of how the crypto market operates, and their long-term operational plans are not clear. A typical example is that Caitlyn’s manager revealed the existence of a second token while the first token was still rising, and the initial token sell-off also confirmed this point, although Caitlyn later claimed to have been deceived by the token developer Sahil Arora. But in the end, for them, launching a token may just be a way to raise funds and confirm their influence.
It is unfortunate that as celebrities, they can easily monetize their influence. However, retail investors in the crypto space are chasing trends with genuine emotions, hoping to get rich quick before the train stops. Of course, there are also those who succeed, such as a lucky trader who claimed to have earned over $100,000 from just 3 SOL. But everyone knows where the casino profits come from. While retail investors continue to ride the roller coaster of ups and downs on this winding track, celebrities are enjoying their golf vacations.
On the other hand, the prevalence of MEME culture has once again raised doubts about the core of cryptocurrencies. The so-called freedom and decentralization have become pseudo-propositions, as true disruptive applications are hard to find, but MEME casinos are everywhere. The community has already had numerous debates about the influence of MEMEs, with A16z openly criticizing MEMEs for destroying innovation in crypto. However, opponents argue that without MEMEs, there would be no liquidity, and without liquidity, the crypto space would lack the key driving force for development.
With the approval of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs by traditional finance regulators, the most valuable tokens in the crypto space are now within their grasp. For ordinary retail investors, although bull markets continue to emerge, the opportunity for the average person will never disappear. However, it is clear that the dividends are being eroded, and the possibility of getting rich quick is diminishing. Looking back ten years ago, mining machines could bring enormous profits, and holding certain tokens could result in gains of hundreds of times. Four years ago, there were opportunities to earn decent income from DeFi experiments and airdrops. Three years ago, an NFT could bring freedom. But now, Bitcoin is approaching $68,000 and Ethereum has reached $3,800, airdrops are no longer as plentiful, and the entry ticket has become very expensive.
In comparison, MEMEs may be one of the stories with the highest odds of success, and retail investors are left to continue to rise and fall in the rapid iterations of gains and losses.
