Messi-Promoted Memecoin Faces Backlash Over Alleged Hefty Insider Allocations
The post Messi-Promoted Memecoin Faces Backlash Over Alleged Hefty Insider Allocations appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.
On-chain analysts believe roughly one dozen wallets control more than one-third of WATER’s supply. Memecoin creators are finding brief success in recruiting soccer stars to shill their tokens. But celebrity endorsements can’t cover up suspiciously centralized token distributions. The price of WATER, a Solana-based memecoin, surged 323% in 10 hours after enjoying inorganic promotion from the Argentinian soccer legend, Lionel Messi. On July 8, Messi shared a photo of WATER’s mascot on his shoulder with his 504 million Instagram followers. Messi’s acolytes quickly responded, pushing the price of WATER to a local top of $0.0012 from an all-time low of $0.00028 on the same day, according to CoinGecko. On the following day, Gaúcho Ronaldinho, another soccer star, followed up with his own picture donning the cartoon mascot, prompting a short-lived bounce in the token’s price followed by consolidation. WATER last changed hands for $0.000894 at a market cap of $65 million. However, the asset has crashed 67.6% from its June all-time high — posted one day after the token’s launch. WATER/USD price chart. Source: CoinGecko. Centralized control Despite the short-term hype garnered by WATER’s celebrity endorsements, blockchain sleuths are raising the alarm on sizable insider token allocations. Analysis from BubbleMaps, a tool visualizing the distribution of a token’s supply, shows that more than 30% of WATER’s supply appears to be controlled by insiders. The data indicates that roughly one dozen Solana wallets hold around 35% of WATER tokens, with the three largest commanding 16% of the asset’s supply. “If you want to control your supply, use one or two labeled wallets instead of spreading it across dozens of wallets and being shady about it,” BubbleMaps tweeted. Crypto analyst Ericonomic warned that WATER investors could be particularly vulnerable to falling prey to a rug-pull exit scam — where large liquidity providers…
Filed under: News - @ July 10, 2024 5:26 pm