Caitlyn Jenner Debuts With a Proprietary Meme Coin?

May 26, Caitlyn Jenner’s X account began displaying some unusualities. Initially, she reposted Donald Trump’s provocative comments on cryptocurrencies, and then she announced the launch of her own memecoin, JENNER, built on the Solana blockchain.

The token's market capitalization soared to $42 million within just 8 hours. Those who managed to buy it within the first hour of trading saw their capital increase 40-fold.

However, the celebration was short-lived. The price movement of JENNER bore all the hallmarks of a classic Pump and Dump scheme, where the value of a low-liquidity asset is artificially inflated and then sold off to the masses, causing the price to crash. In just 2 days, JENNER's market capitalization dropped roughly threefold, standing at $16.7 million at the time of writing.

JENNER's Market Capitalization. Source: tradingview.com

JENNER was created using Solana's token deployment tool, Solana Pump Fun. The memecoin's authenticity was immediately questioned, and rumors of a possible hack of Caitlyn's X account began circulating in the community.

Hacks of high-profile accounts are not uncommon. This has happened to former U.S. President Barack Obama and Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin. Hackers typically use these opportunities for social engineering: sharing phishing links or promoting certain ideas or tokens.

Interestingly, JENNER wasn't the only token promoted on Caitlyn’s X account. Twelve hours after her first memecoin launch, another post appeared encouraging the purchase of a “dog-themed” token called Bertha and Baxter (BBARK). Bertha and Baxter are Caitlyn’s pets' names.

Soon after, the post was deleted, and in a new update, Caitlyn stated that it was an advertisement.

I’m the Real Deal!
  
As soon as rumors of Caitlyn’s X account being hacked began to circulate, a campaign was launched to prove otherwise (though it's unclear who was actually behind the account—it could have been a hacker or Caitlyn's SMM specialist). By noon, a post was published from Caitlyn's account, where her manager, Sophia Hutchins, claimed the account hadn't been hacked and that Caitlyn was currently on the golf course.

Three hours later, a new video surfaced—this time featuring Caitlyn herself. In the video, she (or possibly her AI copy) once again highlighted the surge in JENNER's trading volume, attaching a link to purchase the token.

 At the moment, Jenner's X account resembles a scammy Telegram channel with private signals: a flood of spam, calls to invest, and attempts to prove that it’s not a thing of fabrication.

Sahil Arora: The Power Behind the Scenes

The trend of launching personal memecoins has also caught the attention of American rapper Rich the Kid. Similar to Caitlyn's case, a link to a token page on Pump.fun was posted on his account, but the post was later deleted.

X users found a connection between Rich the Kid's token and JENNER. They discovered that a significant amount of both tokens was bought and sold by the same wallet. It’s claimed that the wallet owner made 98 SOL (around $16,000) from this activity.

On the evening of May 27, Rich the Kid released a video message stating that his X account had been hacked by Sahil Arora, a manager specializing in launching memecoins for celebrities.

“This is the guy in charge of these scams,” wrote Rich the Kid in another now-deleted post. He provided Sahil’s SIM card number and a screenshot of his Instagram account. This was the same account whose story Caitlyn had reposted on X (formerly Twitter) to argue for the legitimacy of the JENNER token launch.

In a conversation with Decrypt representatives, Sahil Arora claimed to have helped launch crypto projects for actress Lindsay Lohan and artists Soulja Boy, Tyga, and NeYo. He stated that he was involved in the JENNER launch and even provided Decrypt with a contract signed by him and Caitlyn Jenner. He also acknowledged working with Rich the Kid but said they parted ways due to disagreements.

User Roxo believes that Caitlyn’s X account wasn’t hacked, but her team was duped. It’s suggested that Sahil was supposed to help launch the JENNER token, which he did, but then sold all the tokens from the Deployer wallet after the launch.

Transaction exchanging 50 million JENNER for 100 SOL. Source: x.com

Moreover, in Caitlyn’s post where she encouraged users to send their memecoins to her crypto wallet, the address given allegedly belonged to Sahil. This post was also deleted shortly afterward.

Roxo asserts that Sahil is the common denominator in four other celebrity-related rug pulls: he launched the token ZUMI with model Kazumi, RICH with rapper Rich The Kid, DOLL with model Ivana Knoll, and SOULJA with artist Soulja Boy.

Community Reaction

The events surrounding Caitlyn’s memecoin split the community into two camps: those who took it seriously and those who simply laughed it off. In the first camp is renowned digital artist and graphic designer Mike Winkelmann (known as Beeple). He posted an illustration depicting a “JENNER” mousetrap.

Beeple’s “JENNER” Illustration. Source: x.com

In the second camp are seasoned crypto enthusiasts for whom the JENNER incident is neither the first nor the last. Instead of getting upset or angry, they troll Caitlyn in the comments and create memes.  

The launch of JENNER highlighted how the lack of regulation in the crypto market can be exploited by bad actors. The creation of such tokens resembles a race where celebrities try to deceive ordinary users, while people like Sahil deceive the celebrities themselves.

There’s nothing stopping celebrities (besides their reputation) from continuing to launch memecoins and making hundreds of thousands of dollars. And when it all falls apart, they can just say, “Sorry, I was hacked.”