Kim Kardashian Pays $1.26M Fine for Crypto Ad

Media personality and businesswoman Kim Kardashian paid $1.26 million to settle a case with the Securities and Exchange Commission for failing to disclose payment for an Instagram post about EthereumMax tokens.

Kardashian neither admitted nor denied the charge of violating federal anti-touting laws for accepting $250,000 to promote EthereumMax in a June 13, 2021 post to her 225 million Instagram followers, documents show.

"This is not financial advice but sharing what my friends just told me about the Ethereum Max token!" the post read.

Note that Kim Kardashian used "not financial advice" and "#AD" in the ad that but still was charged by the SEC. pic.twitter.com/NMVq2y7fEo
— TD (@tdaremarquis) October 3, 2022

The post included a link to the EthereumMax website and Kardashian also included the hashtag #AD at the bottom of the post. A day before the post, EthereumMax was $0.00000023. A day after the post, the price fell 22 percent. The EthereumMax price is $0.000000004311 as of Oct. 3.

Despite the hashtagged disclaimer, the SEC said Kardashian violated federal laws by promoting "a security for sale...without fully disclosing the receipt" of indirect or direct compensation.

"Ms. Kardashian’s case also serves as a reminder to celebrities and others that the law requires them to disclose to the public when and how much they are paid to promote investing in securities," SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in a release.

Kardashian agreed to not promote any other "crypto asset securities" for three years and will continue to cooperate with the ongoing investigation, as part of the deal.

Author Bio

TD Marquis

A veteran journalist and editor with more than a decade's worth of experience, TD helped a small community newspaper in Vermont win a New England Newspaper Association Right to Know Award in 2014. TD helped compile five years' worth of invoices to uncover a long-established practice of small-town government officials paying themselves six figures to do small jobs around town. TD discovered NFTs with Top Shot in 2021 and his first NFTs on ETH were saving two Mooncats. He is now the proud owner of Rowhome #61 and 1,300 other NFTs of questionable value. He also sent 4 ETH to a fake Mekaverse site and wants Lucky Trader readers to avoid the same fate.

Disclaimer: The author or members of the Lucky Trader staff may own NFTs discussed in this post. Furthermore, the information contained on this website or the Lucky Trader mobile application is not intended as, and shall not be understood or construed as financial advice. AI may have assisted in the creation of this content.