- FLOCKA increased over 150 times in value within 24 hours.
- A new wallet targeted 40% of FLOCKA’s total supply.
- Critics raised concerns over insider trading.
Celebrity memecoin frenzy is in full swing as influencers, singers, and rappers launch tokens left and right. Predictably, with the staggering proliferation of celeb tokens, there comes an equally staggering increase in scams and other questionable trading practices.
Most recently, rapper Waka Flocka Flame launched his FLOCKA token, which exploded on the first day of launch. Almost immediately, questions started popping up about insider trading.
FLOCKA Coin’s Insider Trading Concerns
On Monday, June 17, American rapper Juaquin James Malphurs, known as Waka Flocka Flame became the latest celebrity to launch his own crypto token. Within hours of launch, the token rose 150x from its original price, almost reaching 0.01SOL, according to Decscreener.
However, as several online investigators pointed out, a large part of this increase was due to the activity of just one wallet. Crypto investigator ZachXBT was the first one to highlight a wallet that, on its own, bought 40% of the token’s supply.
The wallet later distributed the tokens to over 60 other wallets, potentially to mask the high concentration of ownership. Thankfully, Bubble Maps on X made a chart of the transfers, detailing all the wallet addresses.
What is worse, the wallet bought up the supply before the rapper promoted the token on X. This prompted the investigators to raise concerns about insider trading. As the trade came before the rapper talked about the token, and whoever bought it had to know it was his token.
Because of these concerns, an X community note soon appeared below his post, calling the rapper a “scammer,” with a “history of rug pulls”.
Waka Flocka Flame Past Rug Pulls
According to crypto investigator ZachXBT, Waka Flocka Flame has been involved with dubious crypto projects since 2021. He claimed the rapper did undisclosed promotions for several crypto projects. Notably, the teams later abandoned these projects, leaving traders who bought them with losses.
Waka Flocka Flame was not the first celebrity whose involvement in crypto projects was connected with controversy. Recently, Iggy Azalea’s Solana-based MOTHER token also faced criticism as one wallet bought 20% of the token supply.
One of the most controversial influencers in crypto was Logan Paul, who launched multiple failed ventures. One of these, CryptoZoo, faced accusations of mismanagement after a developer working with him allegedly made off with much of the invested funds.
On the Flipside
- In December 2021, Waka Flocka Flame claimed he fell victim to a scam and lost $19,000 after receiving a malicious NFT.
- Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin criticized the proliferation of celebrity tokens, saying that most lack any utility.
Why This Matters
While celebrity endorsements boost crypto’s visibility, they also carry the risks of scams and other questionable practices. Traders should be wary of supporting tokens by teams with little experience.
Read more about the latest example of the memecoin frenzy:
Celebrity Memecoin Craze Piles with Lil Pump’s Solana Tattoo
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