- Hulk Hogan’s meme coin, HULK, wipes out millions in a supposed rugpull, serving as a stark reminder of the chaos lurking beneath the surface.
Celebrity meme coins are once again seizing the limelight as market conditions turn for the better and investors grow desperate to make quick financial gains.
Many celebrities and influencers are stepping back into the foray with new meme coin ventures with larger-than-life promises, from popular rapper Iggy Azalea to WWE legend Hulk Hogan.
However, despite the allure of celebrity-backed tokens, the market’s short memory becomes apparent as Hulk Hogan’s latest meme coin wipes out millions, serving as a stark reminder of the chaos lurking beneath the surface.
HULK Token Wipes Millions
WWE icon Hulk Hogan’s Solana meme coin, HULK, suffered a staggering $17 million blow on Thursday, June 6.
According to dexscreener, the token saw its whole market cap plummet from $17 million to $11 thousand in the blink of an eye.
The reason behind the crash? Hulk Hogan, who delivered a scoop slam by wiping his social media posts for the Solana meme coin, sending HULK holders reeling from the sudden loss. One of those posts even quoted Iggy Azalea’s promotion for her meme coin, MOTHER.
With users shaken by Hogan’s blow, the WWE superstar quickly denied authorizing the now-deleted posts, leaving HULK wondering if it was him.
Hulk Hogan’s social media accounts & website promoted a $HULK crypto token today, jumping on the recent celeb memecoin trend
it pumped big, millions of dollars, & then dumped
all the posts are now deleted. there’s a new post now claiming that the posts were not from him pic.twitter.com/hDuYVLgNQu
— Matt Binder (@MattBinder) June 6, 2024
Was Hulk Hogan Behind the Rug Pull?
Eagle-eyed crypto users quickly noticed something was wrong with Hulk Hogan’s social media account.
They pointed to one of the now-deleted videos of the WWE star endorsing the meme coin to prove it was legit. Users noted that the footage was recycled from December 2023, originally promoting a karaoke event.
Further analysis revealed that Hogan did not reference crypto except to announce, “Tonight is the night of all nights.”
Other users noted Hogan’s innocence by pointing out that neither the WWE superstar nor his brand manager endorsed HULK on other social media platforms like Instagram, unlike the consistent promotion seen with Iggy Azalea’s MOTHER coin.
I noticed this too. Also his Instagram and his brand manager on IG don't even promote the site linked on X. They promote his shop that sells THC gummies. His regular site hasn't been updated in almost 6 years.
— Behind the Code (@oxbehindthecode) June 6, 2024
Hulk Hogan’s rug pull is the third of its kind in the past month.
A String of Celebrity-backed Rug Pulls
In the past week, TV figure Caitlyn Jenner pulled the rug on her meme coin Jenner. Despite initial doubts about threat actors hacking the official X account to orchestrate a fraudulent scheme, Jenner convinced her followers of the token’s legitimacy.
However, Jenner’s meme coin plummeted by over 65% in just one day, leaving investors shocked by the sudden loss.
In the same pattern, Nigerian artist Davido championed a ‘pump-and-dump’ scheme, becoming the third influencer to leverage crypto for quick financial gain. Like its predecessors, the token quickly became a disaster, wiping investor funds.
Iggy Azalea’s MOTHER token seems to follow a similar path, with the rapper putting in extra effort to promote the meme coin to her 8 million followers.
With the celebrity meme coins trend catching fire, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin cautioned everyone to tread carefully.
Buterin Slams Celebrity Meme Coins
Buterin minced no words when expressing his distaste for celebrity experimentation in the industry, noting that the celebrity-endorsed projects offered no substantive purpose beyond quick financial gain.
Drawing on past examples like Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis’s “Stoner Cats” project, he added that these collections were “vastly more honorable” than any of the projects that have emerged this year.
According to the Ethereum co-founder, any project worthy of attention must contribute to the public good; dismissing the rest is noise.
Regulatory authorities have sanctioned several influencers, such as Kim Kardashian and Floyd Mayweather, for fraudulent crypto promotions.
A certain Sahil Arora was linked to most of these fraudulent tokens, including previous ones, such as the now-dumped SOULJA BOY project.
1/ The Notorious scammer Sahil Arora behind $JENNER has been rugging projects for over 7 years for multiple million dollars.
I'll be unveiling his previous rugs in this thread ↓ pic.twitter.com/FmulDjGTyG
— Paemay (@PaemayNFT) May 28, 2024
Most influential figures entering the industry are often accused of pursuing selfish financial gain and lacking genuine knowledge about crypto.
When asked about the rise of meme coins on Solana, founder Raj Gokal asserted that let people have fun.
It’s clear that celebrities are diving into the crypto world driven primarily by self-serving financial motives, often without a genuine understanding of the technology or the industry as a whole.
This surge in celebrity-backed meme coins threatens to further tarnish the market’s fragile reputation and potentially invite increased regulatory scrutiny and crackdowns.
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