The latest public figure to introduce a cryptocurrency is soccer great Ronaldinho Gaúcho, following a growing trend of memecoins backed by celebrities.
On March 3 Ronaldinho release his memecoin Star10 (STAR10) on the BNB Chain.
“Holding this token grants you exclusive experiences, real benefits, signed collectables, and even my own AI Agent built for those who want to be part of history.” Ronaldinho wrote in a post on March 3.
As part of its tokenomics strategy, 5% of Star10’s fees will be given to social causes selected by the community of the token as part of its tokenomics.
Source: Ronaldinho
Star10’s market capitalization reached $397 million within 10 hours of its launch at 9:00 a.m. UTC before falling to $274 million according to Dexscreener data.
But among industry watchers, Ronaldinho’s new memecoin launch raised tokenomics and cybersecurity-related questions.
After the $4 billion collapse of Libra (LIBRA), a memecoin endorsed by Argentine President Javier Milei, the value dropped 94% following eight insider wallets withdrawing $107 million in liquidity within hours of launch. Investor mood is still sensitive.
Ronaldinho’s cryptocurrency raises security and tokenomics concerns
The Star10 tokenomics raised concerns among investors, as 35% of the supply was allocated to insiders 20% to Ronaldinho and 15% to the team, as per its homepage.
According to onchain analyst The Data Nerd, five insider wallets holding the majority of Star10 added liquidity to trading pools instead of selling any coins as noted in a March 3 post on X.”
Blockchain security company SlowMist claims that the creator of the token has “just renounced ownership” of the token contract, so this is a good sign for investors.
Security experts first considered the token as a potential risk since its ownership had not been renounced.
The author of the contract could burn any token belonging to any holder whenever they so wanted wiping off investor assets without notice, claims Web3 security company GoPlus Security.
The larger memecoin market is still under observation even though the renouncement eliminates the possibility of token destruction.
Investors will have to separate memecoins that could be considered authentic “collectables” from “outright fraudulent activities” as rug pulls, which are “not only unethical but also illegal with case law to support enforcement” Anastasija Plotnikova, co-founder and CEO of blockchain regulating company Fideum, told a well-known crypto news website.
Early STAR10 trading was dominated by whales, which raised concerns about insider control
Further raising questions was early trading activity showing a great degree of whale involvement. STAR10 started at a sub-penny price and soon shot to $0.38 before falling back to $0.27.
With most of the buyers coming through PancakeSwap, the token’s liquidity pool received more than $20 million in its first ten hours.
Some big holders were observed selling, though, during the early price increase. One among them was a “top whale” earning around $1.5 million.
According to on-chain data, the wallet of the top whale was created 77 days before the launch, but it didn’t function until February 20. The wallet’s past transactions mostly consisted of other BNB-based memecoins, suggesting regular buying and selling behaviour.
Though ownership of STAR10 was just renounced, the token’s distribution causes ongoing debate.
Reports indicate that between 80% and 86% of the total supply are insider wallets, which raises questions regarding the dominance of a small group of early holders in trading activity.
The official team first said that their allocation would be locked for thirty days, with an option of extending. Later on, they said the liquidity would be locked permanently, but this did not allay worries about possible whale manipulation.
