The world of cryptocurrency continues to see high-profile endorsements, with soccer legend Ronaldinho Gaúcho becoming the latest athlete to promote a memecoin on social media. This follows a similar move by Lionel Messi just one day prior.
On July 9th, Ronaldinho shared an Instagram story with his 76.6 million followers. The photo featured him alongside Water Coin’s mascot. The mascot’s Instagram account was also tagged in the post. This seemingly innocuous social media post triggered a significant price increase for WATER.
CoinGecko data reveals a 38.8% surge in the token’s value within an hour of Ronaldinho’s post, pushing the price to $0.0012. However, this enthusiasm was short-lived, as WATER has since fallen below $0.00083. This represents a 71% decline from its all-time high reached in late June.
Interestingly, this promotional tactic mirrors an earlier post by Lionel Messi on June 8th. Messi’s Instagram post, which shared a similar picture, resulted in a 158% price increase for WATER.
Water Coin’s website paints a picture of a socially conscious project. They claim to focus on raising awareness for water-related issues and supporting sustainable initiatives, including preventing deforestation and promoting water distribution efforts in Africa. Their roadmap outlines a plan to leverage celebrity partnerships to ultimately establish WATER as a charity-focused environmental token.
Despite Water Coin’s stated goals, there’s significant skepticism surrounding the project. Critics, including YouTuber Ajay Kashyap, have flagged WATER as a potential pump-and-dump scheme. The token distribution model also raises eyebrows. According to the Water Coin website, only 5% of the total supply (88.88 billion tokens) is allocated to the WATER Foundation. This raises questions about the project’s true intentions. Crypto commentator Ponga echoed these concerns, urging caution and highlighting the potential for manipulation.
This endorsement by Ronaldinho is particularly noteworthy considering his past entanglement with a crypto-related controversy. In August 2021, he appeared before a Brazilian parliamentary committee to address an alleged $61 million crypto pyramid scheme that used his image. The scheme, dubbed “18kRonaldinho,” promised investors unrealistic daily returns of 2% and heavily leveraged Ronaldinho’s image in its marketing materials. While Ronaldinho denied any involvement and claimed he was a victim of unauthorized use of his likeness, the incident left a mark on his reputation within the crypto space.
Ronaldinho’s promotion of WATER is just one example of a growing trend – high-profile figures attaching their names to cryptocurrency projects. Former Olympian Caitlyn Jenner is another athlete who has recently launched and promoted a crypto token. Similarly, UFC fighter Khazmat Chimaev briefly endorsed a memecoin bearing his name (SMASH) before distancing himself from the project amidst concerns of a pump-and-dump scheme. Crypto sleuth ZachXBT highlighted the suspicious token distribution of SMASH, with the development team allegedly holding a significant majority (78%) of the supply.
