In the world of celebrities, anything that brings up fame and money is worth associating with. The current craze is cryptocurrency and ICOs (which stands for “initial coin offerings”). Several famed stars from Hollywood and around the world have jumped onto the bandwagon, endorsing and championing specific crypto projects or ICOs.
Celebrities benefit from the explosion in social media platforms which gives them access to their fan base. The large numbers of followers take cues from the posts, tweets or snapshots sent out by the celebrities. This is where a celebrity’s interest in an ICO or currency gets interesting.
While some have merely used their fame to endorse cryptocurrency projects, many others have been paid to do so or go ahead actually to invest in Bitcoin and the altcoins.
If you take a closer look at the value of some cryptocurrency projects, you’d see why it is easier for many people, and even celebrities are interested.
Here is a list of some of the high profile celebrities or personalities who have endorsed cryptocurrency projects or who own crypto coins.
Katy Perry
Katy Perry is perhaps the latest celebrity to join in on the cryptocurrency wagon. And she did so in style. The pop-star shared a photo that soon of her manicured nails which went viral shortly after.
In January 2018, Katy posted an Instagram photo of her nails, hyping cryptocurrency coins. She had her nails neatly painted with various symbols of major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero, and Litecoin. She captioned the photo “$ -CrYpTo ClAwS-$.” The now-famous caption “Crypto Claws” has drawn over 200,000 likes.
To register her interest further, the singer went ahead to tag some of the cryptocurrencies she had painted on her nails. She tagged bit, ethereum_updates, litecoinofficial, stellarlumens, and moneorofficial.
But this is not the first time Katy Perry is associating herself with cryptocurrency. In November 2017, the pop-star posted a photo in which she was having a chat with Investment guru Warren Buffet. She added in a caption that the whole point was to find out the mogul’s thoughts on cryptocurrency.
50 Cent
Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson is a bitcoin millionaire. The rapper allowed his fans to pay for his album “Animal Ambition” using Bitcoin. And when was that? 2014. Apparently, 50 Cent had ‘forgotten’ that he had about 700 BTC that his loyal fans had used to pay for the album. Some people are now claiming that the rapper is an excellent example of what hodling is.
At the time 50 Cent decided to let fans buy the album in digital currency (Bitcoin), the value of Bitcoin was around $600 amounting to about $42,000. Fast forward to 2018 and the value at the time of ‘discovery’ had risen to about $8 million. A growing number of companies and services accept bitcoin.
50 Cent took a risk like anyone else could, but now he becomes one of Bitcoin millionaires around the world.
Celebrity site TMZ reported that the artist had amassed $8million from the stash, making him the latest in a long line of celebrities to make money from cryptocurrency. And 50 Cent himself confirmed this through an Instagram post saying that he was ‘proud’ of himself.
Paris Hilton
TV star and Celebrity Heiress Paris Hilton headlines a list of many more celebrities interested in or associated with cryptocurrency. Hilton’s apparent interest in cryptocurrency dates back to an Instagram post in 2016. She met a former Ethereum CCO Stephan Taul, and a caption said that the star was looking forward to venturing into a new kind of technology.
On 3 September 2017, Paris surprised many when she tweeted that she was “looking forward to participating in the new LydianCoin ICO.” LydianCoin was a project aimed at developing an AI-marketing platform.
That endorsement raised eyebrows because the man behind it had pleaded guilty to sexual offenses. The heiress indicated in her tweet that the support was not an ad, suggesting she did it on principle (although she may be distancing herself from the project after all due to subsequent negative press.)
Whatever the case, her initial interest alone could affect the ICO as thousands of her fans could be convinced to buy into the ICO on account of her tweet.
Floyd Mayweather
Love him or hate him, Floyd “Money” Mayweather knows a thing or two about hype. The boxing champion, who has over 19million Instagram followers and another 8 million on Twitter, has not shied away from the cryptocurrency and ICO spotlight.
It is an open secret that Floyd is a Bitcoin aficionado. He at one time called on his fans to refer to him as “Floyd Crypto Mayweather.” In July 2017, while hyping up his bout with Conor McGregor, he asked his Twitter fans to support the Stox.com ICO. We don’t know it entirely, but it is possible his hype helped Stox ICO raise the $33M it did on the first day of the token sale.
He also used his official social media accounts to hype up Hubii Network, blockchain-based content crypto.
Later on in September 2017, using his Facebook account, Mayweather asked his fans to invest in the Centra ICO token. Even though that ICO has attracted the attention of the US Security, Mayweather hasn’t stopped supporting cryptocurrency and coin offerings.
Mel B
Former Spice Girl singer Melanie Brown- Mel B- is undoubtedly the first music celebrity to accept cryptocurrency payments. Mel B decided to accept Bitcoin for her single “For Once in My Life” in 2013. It is through this action that thousand of her fans came to learn of Bitcoin and probably go on to invest in it.
The former X Factor star has also partnered with HashClouding, a platform on which fans can access her music with payments done in Bitcoin. Mel B has stated that the new cryptocurrency technology makes life more comfortable for all her fans around the world can access her work using one currency.
Ashton Kutcher
Ashton Kutcher is not just a celebrity cryptocurrency enthusiast; he has invested in it. On 28 January 2016, Kutcher tweeted that buying bitcoin was the best hedge against the impending nomination of either Trump or Sanders.
Kutcher hasn’t just used his fame to endorse crypto star-ups; he has gone further to invest in a cryptocurrency- related venture. The actor co-founded A-Grade, an investment platform that launched “BitPay,” a payment system that makes it easier for businesses to access cryptocurrency payments for their companies.
The Hollywood heart-throb is not new to tech investments. He has done business with Skype, Airbnb, Uber, and Shopify.
BitPay investor Ashton Kutcher dropped by our office this week to talk to our team & share insights on taking #bitcoin payments mainstream. pic.twitter.com/2Lgsmoufhe
— BitPay (@BitPay) June 9, 2017
To wrap it up
Celebrities can end up shaping public opinion, and in the case of an ICO, that can often be the difference between success or otherwise. While many of the endorsements are genuine personal convictions, some are paid-up ads. It could be one reason why Facebook recently banned all ads about ICOs. Meanwhile, keep your eyes open for the next celebrity endorsement of a cryptocurrency project. If you’re curious you educate yourself using the resources on offer at some of the best crypto exchanges in Canada.
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