- Meme coins have been trending in the cryptocurrency space and many have been jumping on it
- Davido leveraged his popularity to launch his own meme coin $DAVIDO, but it failed spectacularly
- Here are four things to know about the Afrobeats star's crypto project attempt
The coin was built on the popular meme coin launchpad, Pump.fun, and launched on the Solana blockchain. According to reports, Davido received 7.5 SOL ($1,275) as start-up capital. It was also reported that he spent 7 SOL ($1,190) to buy 203 million $DAVIDO (20.3% of the total supply.)
After creating the coin successfully, he started aggressive promotion of the coin to millions of his global fan base, especially on X. The promotion generated so much frenzy that the Solana Blockchain and Phantom Wallet accounts tweeted it. No doubt, the promotion was a huge success.
Photo credit: X/Davido
But trouble started less than 12 hours after creating the coin: Davido offloaded 121.88 million $DAVIDO for 2,791 SOL (SOL currently trades at $154.23/SOL) and made $474,400 instantly. Since then, new information about $DAVIDO has emerged.
Photo credit: X/Davido
4 important things to know about $DAVIDO
1) $DAVIDO is not dead yet
After Davido pulled $474,400 from the project, the token began to go south. In fact, in a few hours, $DAVIDO lost more than 90 per cent of its value.
Well, the good news or not-so-good news is that the coin is still on the market. In fact, as of now, Tuesday, June 11, 2024, the coin is still trading. Data from multiple platforms confirms this. On CoinGecko, $DAVIDO, at the time of writing this, was trading at $0.0004959, down 27.3% in the past 24 hours. On DEX Screen, the coin is still up and running. This writer made an attempt to buy and the price was 1 $DAVIDO for $0.000004682, while for the DAVIDO/SOL pair, it was 0.00000002883 SOL for one $DAVIDO.
CoinMarketCap data shows that in the past 24 hours, the token has witnessed 672 transactions: 303 buys and 369 sells, amounting to a volume of $101,560.
2) Not Davido’s first ‘failed’ crypto project
For some, the Timeless Davido meme coin is his first foray into crypto and he may do better in his next crypto project. But no. In reality, this is not Davido’s first foray into the unpredictable and turbulent world of crypto.
In 2021, the music star launched a social coin with the ticker $ECHOKE. The token was built on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC). According to its whitepaper at the time, the token was meant to “provide access to giveaways, NFTs, festivals, exclusive merchandise, and other entertainment, media, and hospitality benefits.” The whitepaper further stated that the token was created “to turn fans in the entertainment and media industry from spectators into influencers and stakeholders.”
Well, the token was a massive failure and has now been forgotten.
3) Same as Ponzi?
David has a history of helping Nigerians. In fact, he is considered the most philanthropic music star in Nigeria. His record of helping younger, up-and-coming musicians and the less privileged is public knowledge. On various forums, he has emphasised the need to help others by stating that the best way to rise is by lifting others.
But many Nigerians think with the $DAVIDO token, he rose alone; in fact, he rose by trampling on the heads of his beloved fans. One of those who hold this view is Rume Ophi, a crypto enthusiast who is reputed for his work in crypto education across Africa.
As reported by the Leadership newspaper, Ophi said Davido’s token is not a Ponzi scheme but an outright “crypto scam.”
According to him, “If it’s discovered that U.S. investors were impacted by this blatant attempt to issue unregistered securities, you can be certain the SEC’s crosshairs will be zeroing in on Davido. And any resulting crackdown will create huge stress for the many legitimate businesses and startups operating in good faith across our crypto markets.”
He explained further that
“with 15 million followers, many of whom have zero understanding of crypto basics, Davido’s actions are poised to result in very real, widespread financial damage. He should be partnering with the SEC and our crypto community to focus on developing legitimate NFT products and services that contribute positively to this industry’s growth rather than detract from it.”
Recall that in the past, the superstar had been criticized for promoting Racksterli, a Ponzi scheme that reportedly fleeced users of N1 billion. The promo video is still live on YouTube.
4) The token had a catastrophic fall
One thing you can’t take away from the $DAVIDO token is that it started strong. From the announcement to the well-coordinated promotion, the start was strong. Many fans, especially in Nigeria, where the economy is biting really hard and the fangs of poverty are not sparing even the happiest of fans, thought succour had come.
The fall the token had after the music star ‘cashed out’ was really catastrophic. The token’s historical data on CoinGecko shows that on May 30 at about 6 am, the token’s volume of trade was above $62 million and remained in that region for about 6 hours. But by around 12 pm the next day, the volume of trade crashed to just over $6 million.
The next day, it further crashed to a little above $4 million and since then, the trajectory has not changed. At about 7 am today, June 11, 2024, the traded volume was a negligible $101,508. On DEX Screener, the liquidity of $DAVIDO is $7.6k, with a fully diluted valuation of $4.6k, and a market capitalization of $4.6k.
While $DAVIDO is still alive, its comatose state is surely not what millions of the superstar’s fans wanted.
