Solana Attracts Attention From Mainstream Celebrities Caitlyn Jenner, Davido, Iggy Azalea, Rich The Kid, and Trippie Redd.

To launch their tokens, Davido, Rich The Kid, and Caitlyn Jenner used Pump.Fun which has generated $14.12 million in fees over the past 30 days, ahead of Binance Smart Chain, Ethena, Uniswap Labs, and Base, data from DefiLlama shows.

Solana has become popular among celebrities with massive online followings, a sign of adoption for the four-year-old blockchain network. 

A number of mainstream artists – Nigerian singer-songwriter Davido, Australian rapper Iggy Azalea, American hip-hop artist Rich The Kid, and Ohio-born rockstar Trippe Redd – over the past two days have started engaging with Solana, by either talking about their entrance into the Solana ecosystem or launching their own token on Solana. Meanwhile, Olympic gold medalist Caitlyn Jenner, who was one of the first to the trend on Sunday, launched another token—this time on Ethereum—Wednesday evening. 

For example, Davido who has 15.3 million followers on X and 7.9 million monthly listeners on Spotify, launched a memecoin with the ticker, “DAVIDO” Wednesday through Pump.Fun, a nascent project native to Solana where crypto users can create memecoins and gamble. In less than ten hours, DAVIDO has generated nearly $50 million in total volume and has a market cap of $3.36 million, per trading analytics platform DexTools.

Solana summer don start ⏳✨https://t.co/Lmjgw6ur3v

— Davido (@davido) May 29, 2024

Similarly, Azalea rolled out MOTHER on Tuesday night and since then its market cap has jumped to nearly $12.57 million, garnering $98.87 million in trading volume over the past 24 hours. 

“I am trying to be responsible and not do anything that is negative for the general crypto community. I’m not looking to f*ck with anything that you guys have built. I’m just trying to have my genuine fun in it and be part of [crypto] too,” Azalea said in a Twitter Spaces last night.  

Tryna go to the moon https://t.co/PUBEk0y91n

— IGGY AZALEA (@IGGYAZALEA) May 29, 2024

On X, Azalea as a means to promote her token has posted numerous thirst traps, a colloquialism referring to social media posts aimed at sexually arousing viewers. 

In addition to Davido and Azalea, both of whom were not born in the U.S., American-born artists Trippie Redd and Rich The Kid have also dipped their toes into the Solana ecosystem. 

“Someone call Solana and tell em that their [sic] is a new kid in town,” wrote Trippe Redd on X Wednesday afternoon. Additionally, on the same night Azalea launched her token, Rich The Kid and his team deployed RICH through Pump.Fun. The token associated with the Plug Walk artist has seen its market cap grow to over $417,000 with a 24-hour trading volume of $1.5 million. 

Olympic gold medalist Caitlyn Jenner had previously launched JENNER through Pump.Fun on Sunday like Davido and Rich The Kid. JENNER on Solana, which has slid over 53% in the past 24 hours, has a market cap of $6.88 million and a 24-hour trading volume of $19.15 million. 

The Olympic gold medalist who is connected to the Kardashian family has since deployed another token with the same ticker on Ethereum, according to a post Wednesday evening from her X account. Per DexTools, JENNER on Ethereum generated $6.22 million in trading volume from about 5,860 transactions. 

The trend of artists and celebrities directly engaging with Solana is the latest development for the blockchain network that is nearing $5 billion in total locked value, a level that hasn’t been seen since Feb. 2022, before the numerous crypto collapses of that year. 

Davido, Rich The Kid, and Jenner using Pump.Fun also comes only a few months after the Solana-based memecoin factory first launched. In the past 30 days, Pump.Fun has taken off, generating $14.12 million in fees, more than Binance Smart Chain, Ethena, Curve Finance, and GMX, data from DefiLlama shows.

However, on May 16, an exploiter compromised the project’s bonding curve contracts, prompting Pump.fun to pause trading for two days.