#302: Iggy Azalea's $MOTHER
🤩 What can we learn from celebcoins?
Two newsletters in a row about memecoins?!
Today’s piece is about what may be the most loved/hated memecoin of the past week. That said, there are lessons in Iggy’s strategy and maybe…just maybe there’s more to $MOTHER than meets the eye and her big booty.
Also, I hold some MOTHER and have been lucky to get in early enough to be on this rollercoaster ride and observe the chaos more objectively to see if there’s anything we can learn from this.
What’s up with celebcoins and what is MOTHER?
Celebrities have long dabbled in crypto and web3, often being associated with scams and rug pulls. When NFTs were all the rage a few years ago, many celebs jumped in on the opportunity without fully understanding the commitment needed to sustain the effort.
Nowadays celebs barely touch NFTs. For example, Cristiano Ronaldo’s Binance exclusive NFT collection launched on May 29 only had $9k of sales as of yesterday.
As NFTs have fallen out of favor, memecoins have quickly filled that gap thanks to tools like pump.fun making it ridiculously easy for anyone to launch a memecoin. Naturally, celebs have taken advantage of this new opportunity to make a quick buck.
Over the past week and a half we’ve seen a wave of celebrities come in:
Caitlyn Jenner (May 26)
Rich The Kid (May 27)
Iggy Azalea (May 28)
Moneybagg Yo (post deleted)
Lil Pump (May 29, post deleted)
Trippie Redd (May 29, post deleted)
Davido (May 29)
How have they done?
The one celebcoin that has bucked this trend is Iggy’s MOTHER, which is at a $191 million market cap at the time of this writing.
Wait a second, who’s Iggy Azalea again?
Iggy Azalea is everyone’s favorite 2010’s Australian female rapper with the chart-topping hits like Fancy and Black Widow.
So why have all the celeb coins sputtered while MOTHER steadily moved up over the same time period?
The simple answer is: she is staying committed to the project.
Almost all of these celebs have abandoned the tokens that they’ve launched (while selling their tokens and making 6 to 7 figures in the process), many within the first day.
I’m aware that calling a celebrity that has launched their 10-day old memecoin ‘committed’ is ridiculous. Most New Year’s resolutions last longer than 10 days lol. But in a world where we often think in absolutes, on a relative basis this is actually (sadly?) impressive. And that shouldn’t be overlooked.
How has Iggy committed to the space?
Friendly reminder: We’re talking in relative terms, Iggy is new to the space
Iggy’s X account is focused on MOTHER
Check out her X account. It’s about MOTHER and MOTHER only, and has deleted all posts prior to May 29th, when the token launched. Sounds simple, but keep in mind she has 7.6 million followers with 2,245 posts (including reposts, quote posts, etc.) about one thing.
Driving her top of funnel to the celebcoin
Although X is the main focus due to channel-audience fit, Iggy has also put the MOTHER Telegram channel link on her Instagram and has paused her OnlyFans, telling her followers to go to the Telegram channel.
(On a separate note, she was one of the top-earning OnlyFans creators, holy crap)
Engages with the community
Iggy has appeared on multiple Spaces with various communities. I happened to listened in on one of them (starts at 12-minute mark), and I’ve gotta admit, she seems pretty genuine. Some notes:
She learned a lot more about crypto and web3 from her business manager but wondered ‘what more is there to this?’
By onboarding her friends, she shared some valuable insights around the friction points. If you’re working on consumer wallet or trading products this might be something double down on if not already:
How do you buy Solana?
What is slippage?
Significantly larger celebrities have reached out to her via her manager and she plans to help them
She wants to focus on alternative revenue streams beyond dumping the token, which is unsustainable
Will be launching 2 non-crypto projects (mobile network and digital gifting/crowdfunding) in the next few weeks and both will integrate crypto payments, including MOTHER
She grew up as a digital native, going home during lunch everyday to chat online and browse music forums
Plans to attend Solana Breakpoint
In the Telegram chat, Iggy regularly engages with the community and changes it up by replying with voice messages as well.
She also will appear on a Threadguy podcast which will be released tomorrow.
Makes the most of bad actors in her peer group
Last week, Iggy created an initiative where if a celeb rugs their memecoin, she would burn some of her own token. Earlier today Hulk Hogan became the newest member of that club, which meant one thing:
This initiative turns an event that is only negative into a negative event with a positive spin for a different community. Might as well make the most out of a bad situation, right?
The jury’s still out
With all the low-effort celebcoin scams that have popped up, it’s only natural that they should be looked upon with skepticism. Vitalik and Hayden Adams have spoken out against this recent fad, which I agree with.
Interestingly enough, Iggy just launched the MOTHER website, and the merch can only be purchased with MOTHER. This is one step among many needed to push things in that better direction that Vitalik speaks of.
Can Iggy and MOTHER buck the celebcoin trend? It’s only been 10 days, time will tell.
Other interesting things
Rollup.wtf is a dashboard showing real-time metrics for Ethereum L2s and L3s
Farcaster Frames may have an ad opportunity. This reminds me of the post-purchase Rokt ad unit
See you next week!