Rumors of Cristiano Ronaldo Meme Coin Ignite $143 Million CR7 ‘Rug Pull’ Scandal

A wave of fraudulent tokens inspired by soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo emerged over the weekend, spurred by rumors of an impending meme coin launch. However, Decrypt has been unable to locate any trustworthy sources regarding this claim.

One token achieved a market cap of $143 million before plummeting by 98%—all within a mere 15 minutes.

The CR7 token, named after the athlete’s moniker, seems to have been marketed by various influencers, many of whom have since removed their posts. On-chain analytics firm Bubblemaps suspects an organized group effort behind the fake meme coin.

“It seems that after Kanye West’s YZY launch, some influencers rode the wave and claimed that Cristiano Ronaldo would do the same, using their platforms,” said pseudonymous Bubblemaps investigator 0xToolman to Decrypt. “They then launched an unauthorized token and shared the contract address, enticing investors, only to execute a rug pull shortly thereafter.”

Many rumors are linked to Ronaldo’s partnership with Binance, which began in 2022 and has already led to the launch of four NFT collections. Nonetheless, most of the counterfeit tokens that appeared were found on Solana, with at least five other seemingly fake CR7 meme coins popping up on the network—all of which failed to surpass a $1 million market cap.

Only the influencer-promoted token created any significant impact, quickly reaching a $143.18 million market cap in merely six minutes. However, the excitement was short-lived. The token suffered a 98% decline in the following nine minutes, as reported by DEX Screener. The drop in price was triggered by a series of rapid sales from various addresses, Bubblemaps informed Decrypt.

There have been no social media updates from Ronaldo regarding any upcoming official token, aside from the Binance NFTs that have been released.

This incident follows Ye, previously known as Kanye West, successfully launching his own official token after months of speculation. YZY reached a $411.23 million market cap within an hour of its announcement, according to DEX Screener, before sliding 74% down to $105 million over the next 24 hours.

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Since the launch, the YZY Money X account has begun to assert that the project will soon be releasing a cryptocurrency payment processing system and a debit card. The project’s account has also hinted that YZY and USDC payments will be accepted at the Yeezy digital clothing store. In spite of this, the token has continued to decline to a $75 million market cap.

Ye had been considering the potential of launching a token for six months, which led to two meme coin communities being convinced he would soon endorse their initiatives. Following YZY’s launch, these groups had to face the reality that their aspirations were unlikely to materialize.

“Yo WTF is going on? Are we still alive?” one participant expressed in the token’s Telegram group. “They emotionally manipulated us for six months. Goodbye,” another replied.