Rapper Iggy Azalea is facing a class action lawsuit over her $MOTHER meme coin, which has fallen in value by more than 99%. In the lawsuit filed in federal court in New York, she is accused of misleading investors about her Solana-based meme coin.
According to the lawsuit, Iggy Azalea misrepresented the meme coin’s “real-world utility” in deceptive marketing. The rapper allegedly stated that the token would have uses that never came to pass, which misled investors into purchasing it.
Kenneth Kolbrak, the investor who filed the lawsuit, claims that he invested in the $MOTHER meme coin “after seeing statements about its utility and would not have done so, or would have paid less, if those claims had been accurate.”
The lawsuit explicitly blames Iggy Azalea for financial losses
“MOTHER’s price incorporated the market’s assessment of the represented utility, integrations, and institutional support. When those value drivers failed to materialize, the price collapsed,” the lawsuit claims. “For purchasers, the primary harm was overpayment: they paid more for MOTHER than they otherwise would have paid absent Azalea’s utility, integration, and market-support representations.”
$MOTHER reached a market capitalization of $200 million within weeks of its launch in 2024. The token has since declined about 99.5% to approximately $1 million.
“This case is not about ordinary volatility in a cryptocurrency or the inherent risk that a speculative digital asset may decline in value,” wrote attorneys for Kolbrak. “It is about a celebrity-led promotional campaign that induced consumers to purchase and hold a digital token through specific, material representations about real-world utility, commercial integrations, institutional market maker support, and continuing development.”
“MOTHER’s market appeal was not based on technology, a whitepaper, or decentralized governance. Rather, it was based on Azalea’s personal celebrity, image, and brand,” the lawsuit continues. “Every promotional act reinforced the message that MOTHER was authenticated by and inseparable from Azalea herself.”
This isn’t the first time Iggy Azalea’s $MOTHER has come under scrutiny
In 2024, Coinmarketcap.com reported, “Bubblemaps, a supply auditing tool platform, alleged that insiders acquired ‘20% of the supply at launch’ before Azalea publicly announced MOTHER. These insiders reportedly sold their holdings for $2 million shortly after.”