[ljhsiung]

>> The SEC simultaneously charged the following eight celebrities for illegally touting TRX and/or BTT without disclosing that they were compensated for doing so and the amount of their compensation.

• Lindsay Lohan

• Jake Paul

• DeAndre Cortez Way (Soulja Boy)

• Austin Mahone

• Michele Mason (Kendra Lust)

• Miles Parks McCollum (Lil Yachty)

• Shaffer Smith (Ne-Yo)

• Aliaune Thiam (Akon)

I had to doubletake. Never did I ever think I'd see this permutation of celebrities in an SEC report.

[Animats]

The last group of celebrities to get in trouble with the SEC started with Kim Kardashian, who endorsed Etherium Max without disclosing it was a paid endorsement.

Then there's the whole Guy Oseary/Yuga Labs/BAYC promotion scam.[1] That's in litigation. Short version: all those celebrities who announced that they'd bought Bored Ape NFT's didn't have to pay for them.

[1] https://variety.com/2022/digital/news/bored-ape-yacht-club-c...

[miohtama]

Technically Kardashian disclosed it with #ad tag, but because it was settled outside the court, we do not know if this is sufficient disclosure.

[hn_throwaway_99]

And a perfect snapshot for what a steaming pile of BS all this crypto-hucksterism was in the first place.

I admit, I don't understand humans. I'm just trying to comprehend how anyone would think it a good idea to buy a token because any one of these celebrities hawked it.

[zopa]

If someone got into wine or baseball cards because their boss liked them, we might call it a smart career move. But much of the time the underlying psychology will be exactly the same. And in fact it will likely work better if it’s not done rationally: anyone who becomes too conscious of what their motivation might be risks coming off as insincere.

Wanting to connect with important members and of your community it a perfectly normal human impulse, and finding or creating things the two of you have in common is often a very reasonable strategy towards that end. It goes badly at the scale of modern celebrity, is all.

[jallen_dot_dev]

It's simple: they thought they could later sell it for more. Celebrities hawking it is "bullish" because other people (suckers) will see the hype and want to buy their bags. Unfortunately for them, they were the suckers.

[komali2]

I bet you can think of some irrational things you've done in the last few years. I'd be curious what they might be.

Let's see, for me... Well any time I got games in a steam sale recently, my backlog is huge and I don't have time anyway. Any time I spend on Twitter, I know I don't enjoy how I feel after. Plenty of times I had irrational excuses for why I didn't have to go to the gym on a given day. Made a batch of really good ice cream despite trying to lose weight. Etc.

When I was younger I made some irrational decisions in stocks, now I don't anymore, I think if you get burned enough maybe that's what it takes? I too often wonder why people seem to need to "learn the hard way." For me, if a friend gets in a car accident, I listen to how it happened and make sure to never repeat their mistake, triple for motorcycling. But maybe its domain specific in that regard? Some people are good at being more rational in some areas rather than others?

[thefounder]

It's just FOMO. You surely experienced it until now. It's "irrational" because people make many irrational(emotional) decisions. Sometimes it pays off to ride the wave but we all know that most will not make it...however the potential upside is too great to "miss" it...until you lose.

[goldenkey]

A lot of it is young kids or college students with undeveloped brains and a lack of good guidance. Then a bunch is desperate needy or greedy folks who are thinking impulsively.

[ChrisMarshallNY]

> And a perfect snapshot for what a steaming pile of BS all this crypto-hucksterism was in the first place.

"Web3 is a flaming pile of feces orbiting a giant dripping hairball."[0]

–Grady Booch

[0] https://www.infoworld.com/article/3689914/the-philosopher-a-...

[every]

Sort of the adult version of being suckered into buying a breakfast cereal because of the cartoon characters on the box...

[di456]

Humans have a soft spot for snake oil. Always have, always will.

"If it sounds too good to be true" vs "but everyone else is doing it"

[mmaunder]

Greed.

[arthurcolle]

Floyd Mayweather was also boosting Ethereum Max at Bitcoin 2021 in Miami - When he said "maybe one day there'll be a better crypto than BTC... like Ethereum Max" immediately the crowd started booing him (expected, at a BTC conf), pretty funny

I wonder how he managed to slip through!

[raegis]

Was he compensated for doing this?

[iepathos]

Influencers aren't required to share the amount of compensation they're receiving from sponsors/advertisers. They are required to share if they have a material connection with their sponsors/advertisers though so definitely a fine coming their way.

[tmpz22]

If you're an E-list celebrity on TMZ you're a B-list on Cameo I guess.

[helsinkiandrew]

What is scary is the small amounts that made these celebrities start touting scam products/pyramid schemes they had no clue about. $1-40k to tweet to millions of followers.

[nailer]

Jake Paul was also the main force behind cryptozoo, another rug pull. Coffeezilla has a three part documentary on YouTube.

[sergiomattei]

Lil Yachty lmao

[BbzzbB]

Bet they'll be fined less than they've earned?