Will Smith slapping Chris Rock marked this year’s Oscar Awards Ceremony. But just as fast as the megastar’s hand reached Chris’s face, so did the cryptoverse conjured yet another couple of meme tokens.

As we all know, meme tokens sprout almost instantly after something goes viral in hopes of quickly capitalizing from that moment.

What is now known as “The Slap Heard Round the World” is no exception to this rule. However, as we have seen many times before, it is unlikely that the Will Smith Crypto Token stays fresh.

If you aren’t paying attention to the cryptosphere, there were a couple of projects which turned out to be either:

· A major rug pull, as it happened with the Squid Game token, a project in which the developers took off with all the money and left it a $0, or:

· Sued into oblivion, which happened with Coinye as it got sued by Kanye West.

So far, regarding the Will Smith incident, the two main projects we’re seeing are:

1. The Will Smith Slap DAO: which has been selling non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on OpenSea, a well-known, established marketplace

2. The Will Smith Inu token, which can be found on several decentralized exchanges

Will Smith Crypto – Good or Bad Idea?

As it happens with these meme tokens, the Will Smith Inu, which isn’t a Will Smith Crypto by the way, has surged overnight, seeing almost $2 million USD in trading volume despite having no project or business model to back it up.

Keep in mind that virtually anyone can figure out how to create and launch a token.

As it happens, they can name that token whatever they want and regardless of how much irony a project may be imbued with, the money pouring in might* still be very real (* we say might because wash trades are very frequent in crypto as a mean of creating the impression of market interest).

Many crypto systems out there offer the tools for a quick and easy token creation process, so it takes literally minutes from start to finish.

Moreover, given that the token creation process maintains the anonymity of the creators, they might not even get in trouble for it.

Is Will Smith Crypto Any Different?

A distinction must be made between projects which stains crypto’s name and gives the crypto community a bad rep by using the unauthorized use of a celebrity’s name and, for example, a celebrity endorsement of a token.

Not all tokens are token projects are trying to vaguely associate themselves with public figures or world events.

In fact, Lionel Messi, arguably the best soccer player of all time, has just endorsed “Socios” in a reported $20 million USD deal.

Socios, now seen as the “Leo Messi Crypto”, is powered by Chiliz ($CHZ) which is one of the oldest mainstream crypto projects in the cryptoverse.

The project has been busy lately with the signing of several American NBA teams and European soccer teams and fan token holders are in for a treat.

Token holders (and you only need a single token) get to engage with their clubs, vote in polls, earn signed jerseys, and incredible experiences like playing a soccer match at your team’s stadium as it happened with Barcelona token holders.

Not All Crypto Celebrities are Created Equal

Not all celebrity projects are the same. Keep things simple and remember to always do your own research and check whether the project is in fact endorsed, has a reputable dev team, and so forth.

Rug pulls are frequent and there are many projects out there which tarnish crypto’s reputation, but occasionally one will come along, and it will make sense for you to get in on it early.

Only your research will be able to tell you if that’s the case.