The more celebrity-driven a crypto is, the more wary you should be of it. The above sentence should be taught to any newcomer to the cryptosphere. Today, it’s an obscure crypto that came out of nowhere, and very originally (not) named “Ethereum Max”, that is making the buzz everywhere. Reflex of an old crypto veteran: where is the catch?
A project we know almost nothing about
While in France, what is beginning to look like a big scandal has just emerged with the RR Crypto association – which would have managed to “lose” $40 million worth of cryptos – another story that smells like shitcoin (or worse) is currently on the lips of all the newcomers in the crypto community: Ethereum Max (or EMAX).
As with the name “Bitcoin” which is not protected from plagiarism, leading to serial clones, the “Ethereum” network is here the victim of a project that takes its name, adding a hyperlative to make it good.
However, as CoinDesk reports, the Ethereum Max project – created just a month ago – is not affiliated with any of the Ethereum developers. It is not even a blockchain in its own right, since it is a simple ERC20 token, on the real Ethereum network.
For the “wow I can get a lot for cheap” effect, the token was issued at… hold on to your hat: 2,000,000,000,000,000 units, that is 2 million billion. No wonder EMAX is worth nothing (from a purely factual point of view: less than 0.00001 cents of a dollar).
What is the objective of the project? We know nothing or almost nothing about it, a vague story of non-fungible tokens market (NFT), which is a good thing since it is the fashion of the moment. Apart from that, a system is promised (not detailed at all) that would allow to share 3% of the transaction fees between the token owners.
A plethora of celebrities advertise it (the clues add up)
Of course, to create a buzz, there’s nothing better than stars paid handsomely to say good things about the project. Like the boxer Floyd Mayweather, who proudly displays his support for Ethereum Max. Yet he had been sentenced in 2018 to 615,000 dollars in fines and 3 years of prohibition from promoting a crypto project, after several clearly displayed supports to dubious ICOs, without warning that he had been paid for it.
Kim Kardashian (or at least her lawyers), however, seems to be better informed about the risks of promoting a project for a fee without stating so. In addition to the disclaimer “this is not financial advice”, one will notice the discreet hashtag #AD at the end of the message, meaning that this is a paid advertising message.
On the other hand, will the star’s 228 million followers on Instagram all understand that this is just an advertisement? Some chafing minds might consider that to be sending them straight into the lion’s den, but we wouldn’t say that.
National Basketball Association (NBA) player Paul Pierce also sent out an ultra-bullish tweet about EMAX, without specifying any payment for the service. We will leave it to everyone to form their own opinion on the spontaneity of this promotion.
We sincerely hope for Floyd Mayweather and Paul Pierce that they really believe in this project, and that we won’t talk about them again in a few months, after the SEC has looked into their case, and into Ethereum Max’s. And if you were going to invest even one cent in this project, please do your own research first.
