MOTHER is a Solana memecoin launched by the Australian rapper Iggy Azalea on May 28, 2024. ^[1]

Overview

This memecoin joins a wave of celebrities releasing tokens on the Solana blockchain. MOTHER charted gains since Azalea tweeted it out and jumped to an all-time high of  $0.02565 on May 29, 2024. ^[2]

"Crypto is sexy" - the artist tweeted^[3]

Azalea hosted a Spaces on Tuesday night, 29th May, and spent hours interacting with Crypto Twitter denizens, presenting herself as someone new to building in the crypto space but wanting to make a lasting impact. ^[4]

She also mentioned a charity initiative for the $MOTHER memecoin on the vaccination of Koalas from Chlamydia. ^[1][4]

Some of crypto’s big personalities appeared to co-sign Azalea’s entry into the space.

“She lowkey so valid bro,” wrote DeGods project creator Rohun “Frank” Vora. ^[2]

On June 12, 2024, Iggy Azalea made an appearance at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and predicted that MOTHER would reach a $300 million market cap. ^[11]

On June 19, 2024, Iggy Azalea teased a partnership between MOTHER and Wintermute, a leading global algorithmic trading firm in digital assets; ^[15]

Happy to announce $MOTHER x Wintermute_t are officially besties. - she wrote ^[15]

Controversy

The launch was overshadowed by allegations of significant insider trading activity. According to the blockchain analytics platform Bubblemaps, an insider with an account starting with “JEET” sold about 10% of the coin’s total supply on May 29, 2024. Most of these tokens were quickly sold on the market. The insider reportedly acquired over 109 million MOTHER tokens through an over-the-counter deal. Bubblemaps also highlighted that over 20% of the total supply was bought by insiders directly from the launch team, with more than $2 million worth already sold by the time of their post. ^[3]

Iggy quoted the report by Bubblemaps saying:

"Meanwhile, because this is my concept/coin - I’m somehow supposed to bare responsibility for what random ppl do with their wallets. When in reality them dumping only makes it harder for me to achieve my goal of is having a coin that is actually part of pop culture^[6]

Iggy's clash with Vitalik Buterin

On June 5, 2024, Iggy Azalea had a public spat with Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum. Buterin criticized celebrity tokens like MOTHER for lacking purpose and being financial gimmicks. He expressed dissatisfaction with the current cycle of celebrity experimentation in the crypto market. ^[13]

Iggy fired back with a photoshopped image of herself breastfeeding an infant Buterin, captioned, “He was just hangry.” This sparked a heated debate and criticism within the crypto community. She further accused Buterin of pocketing gas fees, questioning his use of gas money and his opinions on charities and hospitals. ^[12]

The statement was met with ridicule from the crypto community, many of whom were surprised by her misunderstanding of how gas fees work on a blockchain network. Adam Cochran, a partner at Cinneamhain Ventures, commented on the situation stating that Iggy’s remarks highlight the marketing challenge of crypto. ^[13]

“Iggy thinking Vitalik takes the fees represents the marketing challenge crypto has. It’s also why I think L2s are the only way it reaches mass consumer adoption. Just like most consumers don’t understand the internet, and rely on their ISP managing connectivity.”^[13]

Uniswap co-founder Hayden Adams also commented on Iggy Azalea's response to Buterin saying;

"No issues with memecoins or celebcoins - I think there’s value to memetic attention and it’s cool to create markets for it.

That said, the underlying purpose and value of the tech goes way beyond financial games. And the best builders in the space are motivated by positive social change.

Iggy could have responded positively, and used profits to donate to a social cause or something Instead she condescends the best builder in the entire space, proving his point. ^[14]

$MOTHER as a Utility Coin

On June 7, 2024, the team announced the launch of a MOTHER merchandise store^[7]. A while later, founder of the coin, Iggy Azalea tweeted:

“Tomorrow I’m finally relaunching the telecommunication company I co-founded and you will be able to purchase phones, or month-to-month cell plans using $MOTHER or Sol. Ad campaign n rollout to follow late this week.” - she wrote on X on June 9, 2024.

In a follow-up tweet, she said Unreal Mobile is a service provider for the phones and that there would be “a selection of phones for purchase if needed.”^[9] The payment infrastructure will be handled by Sphere Labs, which did not offer a native token yet. MOTHER token holders may soon use the cryptocurrency to purchase phones and monthly cell plans from the telecommunications company. ^[8]

On June 11, 2024, the Unreal Mobile website went live and the payment option for $MOTHER as a checkout currency was added.

The NEW Unreal Mobile site is live now & as promised in addition to standard $ payments we have added crypto (including $MOTHER of course) as a checkout option. - the artist tweeted^[10]