Australian musician Iggy Azalea’s newly launched memecoin has experienced a significant surge in market capitalization, surpassing a token named after her by Sahil Arora, who has been accused of fraudulent activities.
For the second day in a row, Azalea distanced herself from Arora after he posted a screenshot on Telegram. The screenshot seemed to show a text message in which Azalea discussed a social media campaign for Arora’s token. However, Azalea claims that she has never spoken to Arora and that he only had one phone conversation with her manager.
Azalea expressed her disbelief in the authenticity of the screenshot and told Arora to accept his loss and move on. This week, both Olympian Caitlyn Jenner and American rapper Rich the Kid have accused Arora’s celebrity memecoin projects of being scams.
Azalea’s token, named MOTHER and built on the Solana blockchain, was launched shortly after Arora’s IGGY token. While IGGY initially had a strong start, reaching a market capitalization of approximately $3 million, its value drastically dropped to around $158,000 by 11 am UTC on May 29. In contrast, Azalea’s MOTHER token reached a market value of $18.2 million by the same time.
However, Arora’s focus may not be on achieving strong market performance for IGGY, as he has been accused of multiple pump-and-dump schemes, often involving alleged presale scams. The presale preceding IGGY’s launch has raised suspicion and led to accusations of scamming.
Solscan records show that the Solana address Arora used for the presale held over $370,000 in Solana’s SOL as of 10 am UTC. Despite the allegations, Arora denies any wrongdoing and claims that people who lost money simply made poor timing decisions.
Azalea’s token launch has also faced controversies. She posted an Instagram story featuring two men working on computers, one of whom resembled Arora. This sparked speculation about a possible collaboration between Azalea and Arora. However, subsequent posts revealed that the individual in question was actually Azalea’s brother, Matthias Kelly.
Launching a memecoin on the Solana blockchain comes with its own set of risks, and investors must be cautious when investing in such projects.