Celebrity-endorsed cryptocurrencies nearly five times more likely to be scams, study finds

If a famous person tells you to buy a token, you should probably run. That’s not cynicism. It’s what the data says.

A study by former SEC economists Joshua T. White and Sean Wilkoff quantifies what many crypto veterans already suspected: celebrity endorsements on token projects don’t just fail to signal quality. They actively predict fraud. By April 2023, celebrity-endorsed ICOs were associated with a 39-40 percentage point increase in scam likelihood compared to projects without famous backers.

The numbers got worse over time

The study tracks the relationship between celebrity involvement and fraud across multiple market cycles, and the trend line is grim. Through September 2019, celebrity-endorsed ICOs showed a 23-26 percentage point increase in scam rates. But by April 2023, that gap had widened to 39-40 percentage points.

The mechanism is straightforward. Celebrity endorsements substitute for the traditional fundraising signals that serious projects use, things like technical whitepapers, team credentials, and audit trails. Instead, star power drives larger capital raises and better exchange listings in the short term. Projects get more money, faster, from a broader pool of retail investors who are following attention rather than fundamentals.

Projects endorsed by celebrities with no relevant expertise in crypto or technology tend to see sharply declining performance after their initial spike. The pattern is consistent: hype-fueled launch, brief price surge, then a collapse that leaves retail holders absorbing the losses while early insiders and promoters cash out.

A regulatory paper trail of celebrity settlements

In 2022, Kim Kardashian settled with the SEC for $1.26 million over her undisclosed paid promotion of the EMAX token. The settlement included a requirement that she not promote crypto securities for three years.

Floyd Mayweather’s name has also surfaced in connection with alleged token scams, and Andrew Tate has been linked to projects that experienced rapid price collapses after launch. The SEC’s posture has shifted from treating celebrity endorsements as a marketing curiosity to viewing them as a genuine warning sign.

Deepfakes add a new layer of chaos

The rise of AI-generated deepfakes has introduced an entirely new dimension to the scam landscape. From 2024 into 2025, bad actors used synthetic video and audio impersonating well-known figures to promote fraudulent token launches and fake giveaway schemes. These deepfake campaigns contributed to billions in losses over that period.

What this means for investors and the market

White and Wilkoff’s findings carry clear implications for anyone allocating capital in the token space. Celebrity involvement may drive short-term price appreciation, but it reliably predicts poor long-term outcomes and elevated fraud risk.

The meme token cycle of 2024-2025 has reinforced this dynamic. Influencer-driven launches have faced frequent SEC enforcement actions for failing to disclose paid relationships.

A project endorsed by someone whose primary qualification is Instagram followers is not the same as a project endorsed by its technical merits. The study makes that distinction quantifiable: celebrity endorsement correlates with a 40-percentage-point premium on the probability of being scammed.

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