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<\/figure>\n Reality TV star turned cosmetics billionaire<\/a><\/span> Kim Kardashian may be in trouble after acting as a cryptocurrency shill for a sketchy alt-coin last summer.<\/p>\n Kardashian and a number of other celebrities\u2014including boxer Floyd Mayweather<\/a><\/span> and basketball star Paul Pierce\u2014are currently being sued for promoting a cryptocurrency that allegedly earned the creators\u2019 of the token large sums but left many investors with zilch, Finbold.com has reported<\/a><\/span>. <\/p>\n The coin in question, EthereumMax<\/a><\/span>, went on a riotous run in early 2021, buoyed largely\u2014the suit argues\u2014by endorsements from Kardashian, Mayweather, and Pierce, all of whom were paid to promote the token. However, before long, the value of the coin crashed, reportedly leaving many investors with a basically worthless asset. <\/p>\n A class-action lawsuit<\/a><\/span> filed Friday claims that this activity was part of a \u201cpump and dump\u201d scheme\u2014the age-old ploy whereby the creators of a product will artificially increase its value before secretly selling off their own shares and making a ton of cash in the process, after which the value of the product crashes. <\/p>\n The suit lists both the celebrities and the coin\u2019s creators as defendants and lists as plaintiffs anybody who invested in the coin between May 14, 2021, and June 27, 2021, and was \u201cdamaged thereby\u201d by the coin\u2019s trajectory. <\/p>\n According to the suit, after Mayweather and Pierce promoted the token throughout May of last year, the value of the coin apparently rose by a whopping 632%. Meanwhile, Kardashian jumped into the fray in June, just a day before the stock of the coin tanked. On June 14th, Kardashian was seen actively promoting the coin on her Instagram, which has some 251 million followers. Her post read:<\/p>\n ARE YOU GUYS INTO CRYPTO????<\/p>\n THIS IS NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE BUT SHARING WHAT MY FRIENDS JUST TOLD ME ABOUT THE ETHEREUM MAX TOKEN!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Kardashian added a small disclaimer disclosing that the text was actually a paid advertisement, though it reads as if it were a normal post. The lawsuit also cites a Morning Consult survey<\/a><\/span> that showed that Kardashian\u2019s endorsement of the coin had a significant impact on the amount of people who heard about EMAX, alleging that approximately 1 in 3 crypto owners viewed her little commercial. <\/p>\n Just a day after Kim\u2019s post, on June 15th, the value of EMAX plummeted by 98 percent\u2014leaving it at an all-time low of $0.000000017 per unit\u2014the lawsuit says. Before the price drop, the creators of the cryptocurrency sold off their EMAX shares, something that was publicly observable because they did not \u201clock\u201d their wallet addresses (i.e., make them private) until after this period, according to the lawsuit. <\/p>\n Kardashian\u2019s activity caused quite a stir\u2014with several<\/a><\/span> op-eds<\/a><\/span> written at the time on the topic of celebrities shilling for crypto and how the trend might be getting out of hand. Kardashian\u2019s Instagram post was also flagged by the head of Britain\u2019s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Charles Randall, who warned that it could be considered unethical behavior. \u201cI can\u2019t say whether this particular token is a scam,\u201d Randall said at the time<\/a><\/span>, though he noted that \u201csocial media influencers are routinely paid by scammers to help them pump and dump new tokens on the back of pure speculation.\u201d<\/p>\n So yeah, none of that sounds particularly good. On the one hand, you can see why folks would be mad at Kardashian and company for helping sell them what is now basically a worthless coin. On the other hand, it could be argued that taking your speculative investment advice from reality TV stars means you\u2019re probably just asking for it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n