Cardi B Introduces New Meme Coin, Sparking Controversy

Celebrities launching their own meme coins often stir controversy, and rapper Cardi B is no exception. Today, she introduced the cat-themed meme coin, WAP.

However, the crypto community quickly pointed out several irregularities surrounding WAP’s tokenomics and the team behind it.

Cardi B Launches Cat-Themed WAP Meme Coin

WAP, a meme coin built on Solana, has a total supply of 1 billion tokens. According to Dexscreener, WAP is currently priced around 0.00016 SOL, with a market cap exceeding $23 million. The token’s value has dropped more than 60% from its peak of 0.26 SOL.

Read more: 11 Top Solana Meme Coins to Watch in October 2024

WAP also boasts a dedicated website featuring Cardi B’s imagery and music, urging visitors to purchase the token.

Meme coins continue to be one of the most powerful narratives attracting strong capital flows in the market to date. Many celebrities have not missed the opportunity to cash in on this trend.

For celebrity-backed meme coins, price volatility is notoriously difficult to predict. A recent statistic revealed that most tokens associated with celebrities tend to drop between 70% and 99%.

WAP Team Allegedly Linked to Meme Coin ANDY

An investigation by Kwant provided evidence that the team behind WAP may be the same group that created the meme coin ANDY. According to Kwant, clicking the Instagram icon on WAP’s website redirected users to ANDY’s Instagram page.

Another user, CryptoRugMunch, recorded a screen video confirming Kwant’s findings. Furthermore, WAP’s Telegram group shares the same administrators as ANDY’s group. However, those admins disappeared after these connections were discovered.

ANDY is a meme coin on BNB, which once had a market cap of nearly $15 million, but has now fallen to just over $1 million, causing many investors to suffer losses.

An additional on-chain investigation revealed irregularities in WAP’s token distribution. The investigation suggests that around 200 top wallets hold the majority of WAP’s supply, and these wallets have been funded with small amounts of SOL from larger wallets to purchase the supply themselves.

“They are farming WAP, folks. They have almost endless supply to continue doing this so long as the rubes keep on buying into this scam.” Crypto Rug Muncher said

Read more: What Is a Rug Pull? A Guide to the Web3 Scam

Investors buy meme coins for various purposes. Some take on high risks in the hopes of large returns, while others buy simply out of admiration for their favorite celebrity. Vitalik Buterin has previously criticized celebrity meme coins for lacking long-term value.