Iggy Azalea Faces Lawsuit Over Solana Meme Coin

In brief

• The lawsuit claims Iggy Azalea's meme coin, MOTHER, was marketed with misleading promises.
• Investors point to failed integrations, including casino and telecom use.
• The Solana-based token has fallen more than 99% from its peak.

Rapper Iggy Azalea is facing a class action lawsuit in federal court in New York over allegations that she misled investors about the utility and development of her Solana-based meme coin, which trades as MOTHER.

The complaint, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, accuses Azalea of promoting the token as having real-world use cases and commercial integrations that did not materialize, leading to investor losses.

“This case is not about ordinary volatility in a cryptocurrency or the inherent risk that a speculative digital asset may decline in value,” the plaintiffs’ attorneys said. “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.”

The plaintiff, Wisconsin resident Kenneth Kolbrak, is seeking damages on behalf of investors who purchased Azalea’s meme coin and lost money. He claims he bought the token after seeing statements about its utility and would not have done so, or would have paid less, if those claims had been accurate.

Amethyst Amelia Kelly, known professionally as Iggy Azalea, entered the crypto market in 2024 during a wave of celebrity meme coins, launching MOTHER on Solana. The token quickly gained traction and surged to a market capitalization of over $200 million within weeks of launch. At its peak, MOTHER traded at about $0.23 per token, giving it a fully diluted valuation of roughly $227 million based on total supply, and it has since declined by more than 99%, according to CoinGecko.

Unlike many celebrity-backed tokens, Azalea stayed closely involved in the project. She it heavily on social media, with the community, and tied the token to a broader ecosystem that included events, a planned casino called Motherland, and other ventures, including a telecommunications service and a retail marketplace.