2024's Latest Crypto Scams: 3 Shocking Celebrity Rug Pulls

Although the cryptocurrency market is maturing and users are becoming more acquainted with the technology and its many uses, bad actors still abuse the sector for short-term profits.

The latest surge in this side of the crypto industry has been several memecoin scams, dodgy recommendations, or alleged social media account hacks involving celebrities. Here are three of the most egregious rug pulls by people with more influence than integrity this year.

Haliey Welch and $HAWK Coin:

Hailey Welch is a 22-year-old celebrity from Tenessee who rose to fame after being interviewed on the street during a night out about her personal life. The interview resulted in her being known as the “hawk tuah” girl. She turned her 15 minutes of fame into a multi-million dollar payday with merch, appearances, and even her podcast “Talk Tuah”.

Sadly, she was sold on launching a memecoin, leveraging her brand identity. December 5th, 2024, would be the launch date of her disastrous $HAWK token. Within minutes of going live, the Solana-based coin pumped to a market cap of just under $500 million. Then, the mass sell-offs by presale token holders began, which saw the token crash by 95% to a market cap of less than $60 million. 

In this instance, key wallets made millions in minutes, and the token foundation made $3 million from its crazy 15% sale fees, but her fans lost millions and are now suing her for damages.

Jack Doherty and McLaren (MCLAREN) Token:

Nuisance or troll streamer Jack Doherty made mainstream headlines in October 2024 when he totalled his $200,000 McLaren while live streaming on his mobile phone. November 22nd, during a live stream on X.com, he hyped his followers up about showing them what tokens he would be investing in.

A few minutes later, he shows them a McLaren-titled token he intends to buy, claiming, “You know I crashed I McLaren. I have to buy this.” Netizens later reported that they traced several other wallets linked to the streamer, who had invested in the token just before he “happened to discover” the tokens live on stream.

He was recorded inciting investment in the coin without ever revealing he owned significant holdings, saying, “We’ll get rich together,” “I’m not selling,” and other encouragements that raised red flags for the audience. It was noted that he ended his stream when the token price spiked, and the suspect wallets sold shortly after, causing the token price to plummet.

Caitlyn Jenner and Jenner Token:

The former Olympian has been embroiled in litigation over the $JENNER memecoin since November 2024. The suit is based on Jenner knowing selling an unregistered security token resulted in substantial financial losses for investors.

The suit's basis was that the JENNER token crashed in value when a significant token holder sold their wallet. The suit claimed that Jenner was hyping up the coin on their social media accounts to induce sales and stickiness despite its falling value.

When the token failed on the Solan network, Jenner relaunched it on Ethereum, destroying what little value had remained on the Solana network and, this time, adding a hidden 3% transaction fee.

As you can see from the CoinMarketCap chart below, the token is all but dead in the water.

Avoid Getting Tripped Up by Rugpulls

While little can be done when claims of compromised social media profiles and fake endorsements are made, most losses incurred by unwitting first-time crypto investors are due to a rug-pull scam.

Internet safety firm Kaspersky defines a rug pull as:

“... a rug pull refers to a scam where a cryptocurrency or NFT developer promotes a project to attract investor funding, only to shut down or disappear, taking investor assets with them”. Explaining it as “when developers deliberately hype up a project to increase the price, and then abruptly sell up, leaving the price to fall.”

When a celebrity or even a standalone new coin is doing heavy marketing, look out for these red flags, as they very often mean there is something fishy about the launch:

1. Too Many Hands in the Pot: Rather than a staggered series of coin sales which gain momentum over time, the project boasts about the people who made it happen and how many tokens they all hold. When those ‘in the know’ own large sums of the initial tokens, it could signal their intent to sell off their coins shortly after the post-launch price pump.
2. Token Sales From Launch: In many cases measured investor introductions come with short time frames where tokens cannot be sold off. This allows the price to pump and settle before they can be sold. This gives the entire community a fair chance to be involved in riding the ebbs and flows of the crypto. Day one sell-offs allow those who created the product to sell as soon as prices hike, which maximises their profits and will crush the value of investors caught up in the rug pull.
3. Long-Term Sale Blocking: When crypto has no mapped-out plan for users to be able to sell their tokens, this is a major red flag. Virtual assets are only able to generate value when you can sell them. If a token is focused solely on selling to investors but has a firm plan to allow it to be offloaded, you are better off putting your cash under your mattress - at least there, you can reach it if you need it.
4. Sky-High Sale Fees: Cryptocurrencies cost very little to buy, sell, and trade, as there are no middlemen to compensate. In pump-and-dump schemes, the coin creators generally implement high fees. This means that the inner circles make money by buying low and selling high while they profit up to 25% in fees. This fee scheme can be incredibly lucrative when the sales are worth millions of dollars.
5. No Roadmap to Utility: If you want to invest in cryptocurrencies to leverage their value over time, the tokens you buy need a plan for their utilisation. Can it be used to transact online? Are investment options that promise percentile returns? What is the plan to create an economy with the token? Without an active economy, it will lose value and disappear.

Stay Safe with Trusted Crypto Casinos

With licensing and regulation, community reviews, and in-depth research by our in-house professionals, you are far safer gambling online at one of our recommended crypto-first casinos than taking your chances following the latest memecoin fad or celebrity hard sell.

We have categorised our crypto casinos into two camps. First, there are sites that are Bitcoin-focused, even though they offer other banking methods. The second basket has a broader cryptocurrency focus, including Ethereum, Solana, and more.