Regulation
Buy phones with the MOTHER token: Iggy Azalea announces
Australian rapper Iggy Azalea has announced that her new MOTHER token will soon be usable to purchase smartphones and cellular plans through her telecommunications company.
This innovative initiative aims to improve the utility of cryptocurrency, introduced on the Solana blockchain less than a month ago.
MOTHER Token Gains Ground – A Burn Rate and Merchandise Store
The development is part of Azalea’s strategy to integrate the viral cryptocurrency into daily transactions, following the token’s significant 18% increase in value over the past 24 hours, a stark contrast to the decline of 0.3% of the broader crypto market.
Iggy Azalea has announced plans to relaunch a telecommunications company she co-founded, with the innovative twist of allowing the purchase of phones and monthly cellular plans using the MOTHER or Sol token.
The move adds tangible utility to the MOTHER token, which had already fueled a rally when it announced a merchandise store last week.
The store offers items like shirts and hats, purchasable with MOTHER Tokens. In response to criticism and accusations regarding a possible draw, Azalea has committed to maintaining a consumption rate of the token, with the aim of reducing supply and potentially increasing its value over time.
The telecommunications company, Unreal Mobile, will offer a range of services priced between $20 and $80 per month, addressing various data usage and network spectrum needs.
The company promises a selection of phones for purchase, supported by Sphere Labs for the payment infrastructure, which notably does not offer a native token.
Users talk about MOTHER on X
The move follows the success of phones sold on the Solana blockchain, such as the Saga model, which included an allocation of BONK tokens and sold its flagship units in 2023 amid growing sentiment around Solana-based meme tokens .
Enthusiasm was so great that more than 100,000 pre-sale orders were placed for a second Saga phone in February 2024.
However, the launch of the MOTHER token was not without controversy. The crypto community was divided, with some seeing it as a celebrity money grab and others as a step towards wider adoption of the tokens.
The debate intensified following an incident in May in which someone named Sahil Arora created a cryptocurrency called IGGY, capitalizing on Azalea’s fame, which led to millions of flights. Azalea quickly distanced herself from the IGGY piece, furthering her dedication to her own project.
Defying the Trend – The Growth of MOTHER and a Struggling Meme Market
Despite these challenges, Azalea’s continued support and promises of long-term growth for the MOTHER token appear to have resonated with investors.
The token’s market valuation increased from less than $10 million to more than $200 million, confirming early believers in the project. Meanwhile, the overall meme token market has seen a slowdown, with data from CoinMarketCap showing a 12.8% decrease in total trading volume to $5.46 billion over the past 24 hours.
Other popular meme tokens like Pepe (PEPE), Bonk (BONK), and Book of Meme (BOME) suffered double-digit losses last week.
Celebrity coins in general have faced a tough market, with most new launches trading in the red. Notable examples include the Caitlyn Jenner token (JENNER), launched by American media personality Caitlyn Jenner, which is down more than 75% from its May 28 high.
Similarly, the Timeless Davido (DAVIDO) token, launched by Nigerian singer David Adedeji Adeleke Oon, fell 77% from its all-time high reached on May 30.
This trend of celebrity coins generally lacking intrinsic utility or underlying value often leads to their high volatility, driven primarily by social media hype and retail supply and demand dynamics.
Despite the broader market challenges, Azalea’s MOTHER token stands out as an exception, supported by its continued efforts to provide real-world applications and reassure the crypto community of its long-term commitment to the project.