Ronaldinho Gaúcho, the renowned soccer player, has joined the ranks of soccer legends endorsing the Solana token Water Coin (WATER) on Instagram. This comes following a similar post by Lionel Messi’s X account the previous day.
On July 9, Ronaldinho shared an Instagram story with his 76.6 million followers. The story featured a photo of him with Water Coin’s mascot peering over his shoulder, and he tagged the token’s Instagram account.
CoinGecko data shows that after Ronaldinho’s post, WATER experienced a rally of 38.8%, reaching $0.0012. However, the price has since dropped below $0.00083. Currently, the price is down 71% from its all-time high on June 26.
WATER’s price has risen by 158% since Messi’s Instagram post on June 8, which also featured a similar picture to Ronaldinho’s post.
According to its website, Water Coin aims to raise awareness about water-related issues and support sustainable projects that combat deforestation and improve water distribution in Africa. The token’s roadmap includes plans to establish partnerships with celebrities and eventually transition into a charity-focused environmental token to achieve its objectives.
Despite claims by the WATER Foundation that they only distributed 5% of the 88.88 billion WATER tokens to themselves, some industry critics, including YouTuber Ajay Kashyap, have raised concerns about WATER being a potential pump-and-dump token.
The Brazilian soccer player Ronaldinho faced a parliamentary committee inquiry in August regarding an alleged $61 million crypto pyramid scheme that used his image. The scheme, named “18kRonaldinho,” promised investors 2% daily returns and used Ronaldinho’s likeness in its marketing. Ronaldinho denied any involvement and stated that he never partnered with the project, asserting that he was also a victim as his image was used without permission.
This trend of high-profile figures launching and endorsing crypto tokens is not limited to soccer players. Former Olympian Caitlyn Jenner and UFC fighter Khazmat Chimaev have also promoted crypto tokens. However, Chimaev later clarified that he had no involvement with the memecoin that used his name.
Coinciding with these developments, crypto sleuth ZachXBT has highlighted the characteristics of a pump-and-dump scheme in the distribution of the SMASH token, which allegedly has 78% of its supply owned by the SMASH team.
In light of these events, it is crucial to exercise caution and remain vigilant while engaging with celebrity-endorsed crypto tokens.