By now I'm sure that everyone and their grandmother has heard about the wonders of Bitcoin, the magical internet money that could've made you a millionaire if only you'd have listened to your crazy friend back in 2009. Then again, why would you have ever listened to them and their insane ideas about life? I'd be willing to bet that it would be a bad idea to heed the financial advice of someone who believed that reptilian overlords run the government and that Tupac Shakur is still alive and working the speed rail at the Señor Frogs in Acapulco. With the influx of fly-by-night social media scam bots touting everything from the latest and hottest multi-level marketing courses to ebooks promising to make their readers millions by revealing the industry secrets of drop shipping wild and exotic animals, who can the average person trust during these overwhelming times surfing the turbulent seas of disinformation known as the internet?
Enter star power! Just as expected, with the rise of popularity of cryptocurrency has come some major celebrity endorsements along the way. Aside from just owning Bitcoin, many celebs have also become major stakeholders in the crypto market such as former Heavyweight Champ and immortalized Nintendo video game villain, Mike Tyson. The boxing legend partnered with Bitcoin Direct back in 2015 to launch hundreds of Bitcoin ATMs under his name branded, "The Mike Tyson Bitcoin ATM". The days of boxing champs putting their names on grills are seemingly a thing of the past as even Floyd "Money" Mayweather publicly endorsed the Hubbi network, a blockchain based content marketplace. Ashton Kutcher, Gwyneth Paltrow, DJ Khaled, the list goes on and on. However, there is a price to pay for such endorsements as 90s action star Steven Seagal recently found out after he became involved with a fraudulent ICO, promoting a crypto startup called Bitcoiin (also known as Bitcoiin2Gen) which became another typical exit scam leaving their investors empty handed and feeling let down by the rotund Aikido master. In another attempt to regulate the cryptocurrency market, the US Securities and Exchange Commission issued a warning to celebrities endorsing cryptocurrencies and various ICOs: know what you're endorsing. The SEC has fired a clear word of caution to celebs that they can be held accountable and sued for promoting fraudulent ICOs.
All of this of course has been very reminiscent of John McAfee's twitter rampage where he'd been accused by many of pumping and dumping various cryptocurrencies by tweeting about them at will. It's also been alleged that he was making over $100,000 USD per tweet for promoting various crpyocurrency projects. That considered, it's a fair comparison to make that much of what we consider to be a simple celebrity endorsement is akin to what could otherwise be seen as "insider trading" by the comparable stock market-types. As the cryptomarket is viewed by many as the wild west due to it's lack of regulation, it's interesting to see the extent by which star power has such a vast influence. Whether one decides to invest in Cobinhood because of Jamie Foxx's latest tweet or jump onboard the Tokenstars bandwagon due to the powerful influence of the myriad of celebrities who have become ambassadors for the brand, it's clear to see that fame has it's price. Just ask Donald J Trump, at the time that this was written in mid-May of 2018 Trumpcoin is valued at $0.07 USD!