Celebrities’ Token Launches Losing Steam?
Since Donald Trump, celebrity token launches seem to have become a new business model. On March 2, renowned retired football superstar Ronaldinho announced the launch of his personal token, $STAR10, on the BSC chain.
Amidst a sluggish market, although the circulating market cap reached a peak of $32 million, it fell far short of the anticipated buying frenzy. Instead, numerous conspiracy theories about the token surfaced on social media, including scandals involving a token issuance team from Shenzhen, a non-locked funding pool, unrenounced minting rights, and insider trading allegations. Even Binance founder CZ, who retweeted the launch information, found himself under attack from users.
Is this celebrity token frenzy truly a one-way harvesting scheme for wealth?
Football Genius Reduced to a Harvesting Tool? Suspicion Surrounds Professional Team Management
Ronaldinho, once hailed as the most naturally gifted Brazilian football star in history, is commonly referred to as “Little Ron” by fans. He was adored during his professional career and was even called the “football elf.” However, rising to fame at a young age, lacking discipline, and indulging in a hedonistic lifestyle ultimately ruined his career. Following his financial downfall, he began leveraging his fame to earn money. Like many talented athletes who come from humble beginnings, Little Ron unfortunately chose a similar fate.
After attempting various methods to make quick money, the fast-harvesting capabilities of the crypto industry appeared to be a more favorable option for him. On February 22, Little Ron tweeted “Here, cryptocurrency looks good,” hinting at his token issuance plans. However, due to the ongoing downturn in the crypto market, the token was only officially launched ten days later.
During these ten days, the crypto market experienced a significant decline, with the once-booming Solana chain showing signs of weakness. The BSC chain, amid frequent interactions from CZ, attempted to become the new MEME hotspot. Little Ron’s ultimate choice suggests there may be a team behind him well-versed in the nuances of the crypto market.
On February 28, Twitter user @R10coin_ exposed that the team behind Little Ron’s token launch was a token issuance group from Shenzhen. This whistleblower claimed to be associated with another professional token issuance company that had initially secured a $6 million cooperation agreement with Little Ron for the token sale. However, after another Shenzhen-based token team swooped in with a $10 million offer, the whistleblower chose to expose the situation, providing emails and signed documents. The community largely viewed the incident as a black-eats-black farce, yet such internal machinations seem to have become commonplace. The token issuance chaos surrounding President Milei also brought such insider dealings into public view. As of March 4, the user’s Twitter account had been suspended.
Since the user did not provide further substantive insider information, details about the team behind Little Ron’s token remain unknown. According to PANews investigations, the official website domain of the $STAR10 token is hosted by the well-known domain service provider GoDaddy, and the deployed IP address originates from Amazon Cloud Services, having resolved over 80,000 domain names, thus making it impossible to prove that the same entity controls it.
Interestingly, among the resolved names associated with this IP, another well-known MEME coin, PNUT, appears. PNUT is also one of the MEME coins that launched on the Binance exchange last year. However, based on the existing evidence chain, there is no direct proof indicating that a conspiracy group, as discussed on social media, underlies the issuance of $STAR10.
Contract Conceals Secrets: Backdoor Permissions Trigger Trust Crisis
However, during the token issuance process, many still felt a lack of sincerity in the issuance of the $STAR10 token. According to GoPlus Security monitoring, the contract owner of the $STAR10 token retains the right to burn tokens and the lock-up period for the funding pool is only one month.
⚠️ SECURITY ALERT ⚠️ @10Ronaldinho’s STAR10 coin has a serious security risk! GoPlus found that the owner can burn ANY holder’s tokens at will. Since ownership has not been renounced, all tokens are at risk of being destroyed without warning. To @10Ronaldinhoteam: Please… pic.twitter.com/XLrU671nbi— GoPlus Security (@GoPlusSecurity) March 3, 2025
This reserved backdoor operation caused many users to believe that the project team was preparing for a harvest. Consequently, a collective outcry erupted on social media. Binance founder CZ initially retweeted Little Ron’s token announcement without noticing this vulnerability, stating that this action was not an endorsement, merely an expression of gratitude for choosing to launch on the BNB Chain, but later faced collective backlash from users.
However, perhaps due to community pressure, Little Ron’s team subsequently stated on Twitter that they had renounced minting rights and extended the lock-up period to 255 years, until 2281. Yet, this reactive measure did not seem to garner more community approval. As of March 4, the number of token holding addresses on the chain was approximately 9,500, a stark contrast to TRUMP’s 640,000, and even fewer than LIBRA’s 27,000 addresses.
“Rug Pull” Profits 282 Times, Are Internal Players Pre-Positioning?
Additionally, “rug pulls” are a recurring tactic in celebrity token launches, and similar signs have emerged in the issuance of $STAR10. According to Onchain Lens, an insider purchased 20 million $STAR10 tokens for 49 BNB (valued at $29,000) before the token launch. As of March 4, this address had sold $350,000 worth of tokens and still held over $2.6 million worth of unsold tokens.
According to calculations by PANews, the user’s average cost was approximately $0.0014, with a peak increase of about 282 times, and the maximum holding value could reach $8.26 million, nearly a quarter of the circulating market cap. More suspiciously, Little Ron’s token launch time was at 22:17 UTC on March 2, while the purchase time for this address was 22:17:08. This timing even predates Little Ron’s announcement. It raises questions about how this address’s player chose to gamble $29,000 without confirming the token source. PANews discovered that the initial funding for this address came from the Binance hot wallet.
Overall, Little Ron’s latest token launch appears to be yet another failure. Similarly, NBA legend Scottie Pippen, who launched his token $BALL last August, saw its market cap dwindle to just $4.5 million, with approximately 1,400 holders and a 24-hour trading volume of $2,300, resulting in merely five transactions—a complete disaster.
Furthermore, the recently controversial LIBRA and MELANIA have also been exposed as products of conspiracy groups. People seem to have become accustomed to such harvesting tactics and no longer fall for them blindly. As of March 4, the market cap of $STAR10 has plummeted to just $11.5 million, a decrease of 66% from its peak.
From an investment perspective, celebrity tokens to date have almost entirely “fallen flat,” and for those celebrities attempting to quickly cash out through crypto token issuance, this harvesting model seems increasingly unsustainable.
This article is reproduced in cooperation with: PANews