TLDR
- Australian rapper Iggy Azalea launched her own Solana-based token called MOTHER, distancing herself from alleged scammer Sahil Arora.
- Arora reportedly raised over $380,000 in a presale for a token named IGGY, claiming to be working with Azalea.
- Azalea claims she launched MOTHER to prevent Arora from using her name for his “weird scam.”
- MOTHER reached a market cap of $50 million at its peak, surging by 63,000% in the hours following its launch.
- The celebrity token trend has seen mainstream media figures launching Solana-based memecoins, with some celebrities like Rich The Kid and Caitlyn Jenner alleging they were scammed by Arora.
The world of celebrity-endorsed cryptocurrencies has been making headlines recently, with Australian rapper Iggy Azalea being the latest to join the trend. However, her entry into the space has been marred by controversy surrounding an alleged scammer named Sahil Arora.
Azalea surprised the crypto community on Monday by showing interest in cryptocurrencies, posting on X (formerly Twitter) asking, “Who is Solana? I don’t know that bitch.”
This post garnered over 1.8 million views and initially caused confusion among her fans, who thought she was referring to American R&B singer SZA. Azalea quickly clarified that she was talking about the Solana blockchain.
Solana is for baddies https://t.co/PFY0ZkxtxZ pic.twitter.com/GsKitswRAH
— IGGY AZALEA (@IGGYAZALEA) May 29, 2024
Following this, Azalea found herself embroiled in allegations of involvement with Sahil Arora, who has been accused of launching and subsequently rugging several celebrity and influencer tokens.
Rappers like Rich The Kid and Olympian Caitlyn Jenner have called out Arora for scamming them and their followers.
Azalea has distanced herself from Arora, explaining that while they had a conversation about crypto, her recently launched token, MOTHER, was unrelated to him.
She claims that Arora fabricated fake screenshots and used her name to raise over $380,000 in a presale for a token named IGGY.
In response, Azalea launched MOTHER on Tuesday, just hours after Arora’s IGGY token.
She stated that she launched her own token to prevent Arora from using her name for his “weird scam.”
The MOTHER token, which references an LGBTQ+ culture term popularized in recent years, saw tremendous success.
It reached a market cap of $50 million at its peak, surging by 63,000% in the hours following its launch. In comparison, Arora’s IGGY token saw its price plummet after an initial surge.
