The crypto-verse has grown in immense popularity over the years. Many people have come forward to show their support for the cryptocurrency industry, from government officials to celebrities. However, with a plethora of assets present in the market, these celebrities often fail to filter the scammy ones. Public figures endorsing scammy tokens have caused nothing but trouble for them as well as the ecosystem. Argentine Presidential candidate Javier Milei was the latest to join this list.
As per a recent report, Milei was being sued for promoting an alleged crypto Ponzi scheme. Milei is in the run to become the next President of Argentina. He was repeatedly seen endorsing Bitcoin while labeling the central bank “a scam.” Amidst this, he shared an Instagram post last year promoting a crypto investment firm CoinX.
Milei shared the post with his 1.3 million followers, promising huge returns. He even wrote,
“They are revolutionizing the way to invest to help Argentinians with inflation. You can now simulate your investment in pesos, dollars or cryptocurrencies and earn a profit.”
Soon after, National Securities Commission [CNV] asked the crypto platform to shut shop. The regulator noted that CoinX wasn’t operating legally in the region.
In addition to this, customers weren’t given their promised returns. Therefore, a group of Milei’s followers decided to hit back as they endured a loss of nearly $300,000.
Argentina has been quite welcoming towards crypto. While the country does not recognize these assets as legal tender, the central bank does not classify them as illegal.
No more A-listers to make an appearance in the crypto-verse?
Like Milei, an array of public figures have been sued for endorsing crypto. Billionaire Mark Cuban recently joined this list for his involvement with Voyager Digital. Reality star Kim Kardashian and boxer Floyd Mayweather created quite the buzz at the beginning of this year, and both these celebrities were being sued for the promotion of EthereumMax.
Matt Damon was heavily criticized for his Crypto.com campaign. Football player Tom Brady, Boxer Mike Tyson, and Actress Reese Witherspoon were also called out to endorse crypto or NFTs.
However, crypto ad spending has taken a backseat over the last couple of months. The onset of the bear market seems to have silenced several prominent crypto exchanges. The combined spending of platforms like Coinbase, Crypto.com, eToro, and FTX alone in February this year was $71 million, and this further plummeted to a low of $10 million in April.
With immense backlash and the possibility of lawsuits, public figures are likely to stay out of the crypto spotlight.