Brazilian soccer icon Ronaldinho Gaucho has made headlines for his aggressive push for mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies, sparking widespread dialogue and pleasure amongst his huge international following. Ronaldinho used his affect to ask a compelling query on social media: “It is time for cryptocurrencies to go mainstream, who helps me?” This direct enchantment resulted in additional than 220 views of his message Hundreds of instances and retweeted hundreds of instances, displaying how individuals are in his endorsement.
Cryptocurrency consultants sound alarm over Ronaldinho endorsement
A number of days in the past, Ronaldinho introduced a strategic partnership with Lingo, a platform that goals to combine the utility of reward tokens with real-world property by way of blockchain expertise. The partnership, revealed through X (previously Twitter), sees Ronaldinho turn out to be a key ambassador for Lingo, aiming to make use of his celeb standing to introduce the nuances of digital property to a wider viewers.
This partnership is one in all many examples of celebrities utilizing their platforms to advertise fintech, probably attracting new customers unfamiliar with the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Ronaldinho’s affect is especially highly effective given his worldwide fame and big social media following, together with hundreds of thousands of followers throughout a number of platforms.
Nonetheless, the announcement was met with skepticism from some quarters within the cryptocurrency group. Notably, on-chain analyst ZachXBT, recognized for investigating fraud, responded critically. He highlighted Ronaldinho’s historical past of supporting cryptocurrencies, which he claimed primarily concerned “pump and dump” schemes.
ZachXBT stated: “Is that this the interpretation of Are you bankrupt once more? In case you forgot, listed here are all of the cryptocurrency initiatives you’ve gotten hyped and dumped over time,” citing a number of initiatives beforehand promoted by Ronaldinho, together with World Cup Inu, Kisht Inu, MiniFootball Membership, Atari Chain, Lord Society NFTs, BabyDoge and Metaverk (MEVR). He questioned the sustainability and integrity of those strikes and shared proof of Ronaldinho’s previous monetary woes to recommend potential motivations behind these promotions.
Is that this the interpretation of Are you broke once more?
In case you forgot, listed here are all of the crypto initiatives which have been hyped and dumped over time. pic.twitter.com/VvVRQR6tKt
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) June 24, 2024
This criticism highlights a broader drawback within the cryptocurrency area – celeb endorsements can significantly affect market costs and investor sentiment, usually and not using a clear evaluation of the underlying worth or potential of the initiatives being promoted.
Ronaldinho isn’t the one one to dabble in cryptocurrency endorsements. Different celebrities, together with Australian rapper Iggy Azalea and sports activities stars resembling Lionel Messi, Tom Brady and Naomi Osaka, are additionally concerned in varied crypto initiatives, usually Could cause short-term market pleasure.
For instance, the MOTHER token launched by Iggy Azalea on the Solana blockchain rapidly reached a market worth of $200 million as a consequence of a 90% worth surge in simply 24 hours. These examples are a reminder of the highly effective mixture of celeb affect and the speculative nature of crypto markets. Additionally they pressured the significance of investor warning.
Movie star involvement might enhance publicity and probably speed up adoption, nevertheless it additionally brings dangers, such because the authorized challenges confronted by figures resembling Floyd Mayweather Jr., who allegedly promoted fraudulent debut Token providing (ICO).
At press time, MOTHER was buying and selling at $0.0614, nonetheless down -78% from its all-time excessive.
Featured picture from Sky Sports activities, chart from TradingView.com