Nine celebs who work and invest in crypto
We’ve all heard about celebrities who endorse ICOs and tweet about projects that end up being a bit dubious — remember what happened to Paris Hilton when she endorsed LydianCoin? But there is another breed of power players who are using their status to become ICO advisers, launch their own token or promote projects they truly believe in. This is not about having the must-have accessory of the season, this is about change.
Here our list of stars who are doing things right. Oh, and by the way, which celebrity do you think should join Nauticus as a trusted adviser or ambassador?
Gwyneth Paltrow
Although we haven’t seen the Shakespeare in Love actress on the big screen recently, she has managed to stay relevant thanks to her wellness network Goop and her role in the reality show Planet of the Apps. And it’s thanks to her new entrepreneurship status that she has joined payment app Abra as an adviser. The blockchain startup uses human tellers and blockchain to deliver ultra-fast transactions in any currency.
Paltrow has been instrumental in helping Abra’s CEO Bill Barhydt build his brand. “She has been a huge value add. She’s opened up her network to us, given us valuable business advice, providing her insights on running a consumer business with hundreds of thousands of paying customers,”said Barhydt to Forbes.
Ashton Kutcher
The actor may have learned few things about start-ups and technology after researching for his role in the film Jobs, where he portrayed famous Apple founder Steve Jobs. Kutcher is known for having invested in Uber, Airbnb and Spotify, owns the venture capital firm Sound Ventures, and is a firm believer in the disruptive power of blockchain and cryptocurrency.
In fact, the thespian has put his hard-earned dollars to work by investing in Ripple and BitPay, among others, and has donated $4 million in Ripple’s XRP to The Ellen DeGeneres Wildlife Fund.
Kanye West
After a chain of tweets that started with the word ‘decentralize’, the rapper made every music and blockchain lover wonder about his new project, the music platform Yeezy Sound. The decentralized platform seems to be designed to cut the middleman and give musicians better control of their earnings and copyrights. Perhaps this is the reason why in 2014, the Grammy-winning artist sued Coinye, a cryptocurrency that was named after him. Kanye, of course, won.
Björk
The famous singer decided to accept cryptocurrency payment for her 2017 album Utopia, but that’s not all. The visionary was also offering 100 free AudioCoins with every album purchase to help her fans join the cryptocurrency craze and give blockchain startup Blockpool a better chance of being a success.
Within three days of Björk’s launch, AudioCoin shoot up in value from $0.0026 to $0.0075. “While it will be interesting to see how the crypto community responds to this, Utopia is also a gateway for people to go into crypto for the first time. Björk is the best artist in the world we could imagine doing this,”said Blockpool CEO Kevin Bacon in an interview.
Mike Tyson
Seems that Mike Tyson has secured a way of keep himself relevant — and rich; besides lending his image in 2015 to brand several bitcoin ATMs in Las Vegas strip, he collaborated with Bitcoin Direct to launch a cryptocurrency wallet. The Tyson products are designed to pique consumers’ interest in bitcoin and blockchain, which makes him both an entrepreneur and a master in sponsorship. Now, we don’t know how many people use the app launched in 2016, but, as Tyson said back then: “I’m grateful to be a part of the bitcoin revolution and hoping that my participation in this space will lead to more conversations and help increase knowledge and awareness. In no way do I profess to be any kind of bitcoin currency guru. It just seems very interesting and I’m intrigued with the possibilities.”
Ghostface Killah
The Wu-Tang Clan member co-founded Cream Capital in 2017. The blockchain start-up ran its ICO and launched the $CNT token, which provides discounted fees online for users of Cream ATMs and the Cream Asset Management Platform. Cream Capital aimed to raise $30 million during its ICO to build what they called in their white paper the largest ATM network in the US, and they promised 100 should be operational by mid-2018. Now we just have to wait and see if they deliver.
Gianlucca Zambrotta
The soccer player landed an ambassador role in TokenStars Platform, a blockchain software that seeks to connect celebrities with fans and advertisers to shake things up and make sure that the top 10 talent management agencies have some competition. TokenStars will support new talent and will help young athletes achieve their dreams. The platform will eventually expand to performance, music, film and modelling.
Donald Glover
Childish Gambino’s alter-ego has been a huge supporter on blockchain technology and altcoins. He might not do it as publicly as other celebs, but some of his earnings are sure to have been invested in different coins. In an interview with Time in 2013, Gambino said: “Yeah, I know a lot of people are skeptical, but I feel like if everything’s going to live online, why not bitcoins? Being backed by gold seems very old and nostalgic to me. Being backed to a bitcoin, which takes time to actually make and there’s this equation that has to be done, that feels realer to me and makes more sense.”
Jamie Foxx
This actor and comedian joined the cryptofever and promoted the zero-fee exchange Cobinhood on his Twitter account. We are sure Foxx got his share of tokens after the now famous tweet. However, Cobinhood has had to launch an announcement apologizing for not being clear about their pre-sale policy in their white paper.
Foxx, however, didn’t say anything about this, and, contrary to other celebrities who have publicly apologized for endorsing a dubious ICO, he stood his ground. Now this is more than just endorsement in exchange of a few thousand dollars.
By Gabriella Munoz
