The A-listers are accused of colluding with the cryptocurrency's co-founders to engage in a pump and dump — leaving investors out of pocket.
Kim Kardashian, Floyd Mayweather and Paul Pierce are being sued following their endorsements of the Ethereum Max token.
The A-listers are accused of colluding with the cryptocurrency's co-founders to engage in a pump and dump — leaving investors out of pocket.
In court documents, the defendants are accused of claiming that investors could "make significant returns due to the favorable 'tokenomics' of EMAX tokens," when in actuality they sold off their own coins for profit.
Ethereum Max has had a rather dramatic fall from grace in recent months — and CoinMarketCap data shows it's currently No. 4,749 in the rankings.
Towards the end of May 2021, EMAX's price stood at $0.0000008546 with 24-hour trading volumes that stood at $103 million. By contrast, the token's value now stands at $0.00000001876… down by a whopping 97.8%. Trading volumes are currently a paltry $57,258.
Celebs and Crypto
Mayweather — who has landed himself in hot water with regulators before for promoting initial coin offerings — was snapped wearing an Ethereum Max T-shirt at the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami. Meanwhile, Kardashian had posted on Instagram:
"Are you guys into crypto???? This is not financial advice but sharing what my friends just told me about the Ethereum Max token! A few minutes ago Ethereum Max burned 400 trillion tokens — literally 50% of their admin wallet — giving back to the entire E-Max community."
Paul Pierce, a former NBA star, has an even more colorful story. He was fired by ESPN after an Instagram Live video showed him disregarding COVID precautions while in a room with exotic dancers. He later tweeted:
"ESPN I don't need you. I got Ethereum Max. I made more money with this crypto in the past month than I did with y'all in a year."
Kardashian was later singled out by the U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority, with the regulator describing such cryptocurrencies as "untested."
Given how the influencer has more than 250 million followers on Instagram, FCA chairman Charles Randell said her post "may have been the financial promotion with the single biggest audience reach in history." He added:
"Of course, I can’t say whether this particular token is a scam. But social media influencers are routinely paid by scammers to help them pump and dump new tokens on the back of pure speculation. Some influencers promote coins that turn out simply not to exist at all."
