Morning Minute | Iggy Azalea's $20M Memecoin Debut

TylerD's Market Summary

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💰 The Celeb Memecoin Craze Continues

It looks like Caitlyn Jenner's weekend hijinx weren't just a one-off affair.

In fact, it seems she has opened Pandora's box for celebrity memecoins.

And this one is going to be tough to close.

What Happened?

Last night, Iggy Azalea joined the memecoin founder's circle with her own token launch with $MOTHER.

But the twist here is - she did it as a stealth launch.

Here's how it went down:

• On Monday, Iggy tweeted "Who's solana...? I don't know that bitch" leading to speculation she may drop a token
• Around 6 pm ET on Tuesday, a token named $iggy launched (many thought was hers), briefly spiking to $4M-$5M
• At the same time a token named $MOTHER launched but traded at a much lower range
• Then around 9 pm ET, she tweeted out "Don't disappoint your mother..." with a contract address, indicating that $MOTHER was the real token
• $MOTHER instantly shot up to a $20M market cap ($30M at peak) while $iggy went to near 0
• Iggy then went on Twitter Spaces to talk about the token, why she wanted to get into crypto and more

Just a wild chain of events.

She then went on to interact with the Phantom Twitter account and several other crypto natives in a manic night of tweeting.

As the dust settled this morning, the token sits at a $17M mc and has seen $123M in trading volume.

Regarding the token, those who figured out that the MOTHER token was hers in advance made huge profits.

Though there is speculation that Iggy allowed insiders to accumulate the token early during the window before she tweeted it out - so please dyor before buying in.

What They Are Saying

Not surprisingly, this celeb memecoin craze has become the main story on the timeline in the past few days.

Chris Burniske commented on the situation:

"Everything that has financial incentives at its core will be boiled down into its essence by blockchains, and the ease of tokenization and market creation - it won't be pretty, but it will reveal what was always there."

Ansem defended Iggy and her intentions, stating:

"bros yall gotta stop assuming everybody new to crypto comes into the space strictly to rob ppl blind, some new ppl genuinely want to learn & yall be calling them scammers before they can even ask what a smart contract is"

Stats (formerly NFT Stats) called memecoins a ploy for just the lower tier celebs, stating:

"Perhaps a hot take: Celebrity memecoins aren’t really a thing. These are quick money schemes for people who are washed up. Or getting pulled in by con artists. Very few real celebrities with real personal brand & reputation on the line are going to get into this game."

Meanwhile Rewkang reacted to those calling tops:

"Memecoins pumping are no longer indicators of local tops because memecoins are no longer the last rung of desirability as a sector In fact, they are the sector that new capital allocators believe in the MOST Memes have and will lead the market Adapt or die"

Clearly folks have strong opinions on this new meta.

Why It Matters

The celeb memecoin craze is bringing attention to the crypto space, for better or for worse.

It's certainly fair to be concerned over bad actors and bad intentions leading to token buyers getting rekt.

And many are drawing comparisons to celeb NFT projects from last cycle, nearly all of which have gone to 0.

And guess what - most of these celeb memecoins will go to 0 on a long enough timeline. Just like 99.99% of all memecoins. And NFTs.

It doesn't mean there aren't near-term trading opportunities, and that folks can't have some fun with it in the interim.

As for winners, Solana feels like the biggest gainer here.

All of the celebs so far have launched on Solana. Phantom Wallet was the #1 app in the financial sector over the weekend.

New adoption and onboarding is likely happening via this craze - now hopefully some will stick around and find something they like in broader crypto.

🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?

Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:

• ETH led NFT trading volume with $5.2M on the day (-9%); BTC was next with $4.3M (-12%) and then Solana with $2.7M (-4%)
• ETH NFT leaders were mixed with BAYC +2% to 12.7 ETH and Pudgy +3% to 10.5, while Miladys (-4%) and Pixelmon (-15%) fell
• Kanpai Pandas (+13%) and Sappy Seals (+11%) were notable outperformers on the day
• BTC NFT leaders jumped 5-10% across the board; Puppets at 0.155 BTC, NodeMonkes at 0.23, OMB at 0.285 and Quantum Cats at 0.281
• DOG soared 34% on the day to a $560M market cap leading Runes action on the day, making it the 6th highest memecoin by mc; several other runes saw 10-20% gains on the day
• Solana NFTs were mostly red on the day; Mad Lads -6% at 65 SOL, Tensorians +4% to 10.9, DeGods -2% to 27.7, SMB Gen 2 -3% to 25
• Blast NFTs were mostly red; Apollo -18%, Plutocats -4%, Ship -26% and Blastopians -4%
• Azuki teased a new product coming soon and asked for a "character casting call" on X, where Azuki, Elementals, and BEANZ holders can all apply via their collector's profile
• Sappy Seals teased an upcoming game in collaboration with PlayEmber

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

Here's a rundown of major token or airdrop news from the day:

🌎 Around Crypto and Web3

A few other Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:

• Crypto majors are red this morning; BTC -1% at $67,915; ETH -2% at $3,820, SOL even at $170
• Memecoin majors are mixed with DOGE -1%, PEPE -9%, WIF +5%, BONK -1%
• A whale staked 146,110 ETH ($550M) in what is expected to be the record for a single staking transaction
• Franklin Templeton Digital Assets shared its latest 2-pager covering the BTC ETFs and impact on the market structure
• Donald Trump is considering Bitcoin as a national debt hedge according to reports from Bitcoin Magazine
• The Sandbox launched a DAO with an $11M annual budget along with its first set of Sandbox Improvement Proposals
• ENS announced its ENS V2, a proposal to extend the protocol to a Layer 2

🚀 Memecoin Movers 

• $MOTHER (+24,00%, $17M market cap, Solana)
• $BEER (+62%, $140M market cap, Solana) 
• $BAZINGA (+338%, $20M market cap, Solana)
• $STRUMP (+180%, $24M market cap, ETH)
• $MAGA (+30%, $225M market cap, ETH)

📈 NFT Floor Price Increase (ETH)

• Anonthology (45%, 0.05 ETH Floor)
• Fractional Uprising... (24%, 0.12 ETH)
• Wolf Gen 2 (23%, 0.05 ETH)
• Opepen (16%, 0.11 ETH)
• PX Quest (14%, 0.39 ETH)

🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals

Today is another busy day of mints and events.

The Base mints continue with Onchain Summer, featuring Mikeelf today.

Pacmoon is officially launching its v2 and social validator.

And Tony Babel is doing his first drop with Exchange art.

See the full list and dive in for more details with Swizzy's daily mint monitor. 

• Memes by 6529 (11:00 a.m. ET)
• Mike elf x Prohibition - My Red Period (12:00 p.m. ET)
• Pacmoon v2 launch (1:00 p.m. ET)
• meme.fun - Memefun Memories (1:00 p.m. ET)
• Tony Babel x Exchange Art - Hellfluencer (1:00 p.m. ET)

Enjoy this write-up and/or want to sponsor the Morning Minute? Follow along with me on Twitter @tyler_did_it or reach out via email to tyler.warner@luckytrader.com.