Crypto Shilling probably costs a celebrity a million dollars
Yet to collapse cryptocurrency, EMAX, has just got another celebrity in hot water. Short for EthereumMax was the bullshit scheme promoted on Twitter by former NBA player Paul Pierce, except he rather forgot to mention that he was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to do it. As reported by The Verge, The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has fined him $1.4 million.
One way to get rich quick would be to create a new cryptocurrency, pay celebrities to hype it so that many gullible giants buy in hoping to make a profit, then quickly sell all your original tokens at that moment and go away.
In other news, when EMAX launched in 2021, creators paid celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Paul Pierce to tweet saying how absolutely extraordinary it was. ONEtempting to ride on the name “Ethereum”, an alternative pretend-o-coin with which it has nothing to do, the launch was much worrisome.
Since then, EMAX has cost its celebrity supporters millions, while presumably making them considerably less. In October last year Kim Kardashian agreed to settle with the SEC for $1.26 million for her unknown tweeted promoting the currency, and now it has cost Paul Pierce even more.
For context, Paul Pierce was fired from a presenting job at ESPN in 2021, after he shared an Instagram video of himself in some rather inappropriate circumstancesand then allegedly went on a misogynistic spree Twitter tirade. A month later, he tweeted his EMAX promo and declared,
.@espn I don’t need you. I have @ethereum_max I made more money with this crypto in the last month than I did with you guys in a year. The TRUTH shall set you free” [goofy emojis] my own Boss EthereumMax.org check it out for yourself
The SEC reports that Pierce was paid $244,000 in EMAX tokens for this tweet, which he should have declared as a paid promotion, while directly accusing him of lying about how much money he had made.
“This case is yet another reminder to celebrities,” says SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, “tthe law requires you to disclose to the public who and how much you are paid to promote investments in securities, and you cannot lie to investors when selling a security.“
The tweet violated “anti-touting” and “anti-fraud” laws, and as such Pierce has agreed to pay a total of $1.409 million, and not to promote anything related to crypto for the next three years.
In the meantime, just in case you were still wondering if there’s money in their hillsHere’s how EthereumMax has performed over its lifetime:
