Memecoins
Why Waka Flocka Flame Insists His Meme Currency Is Not a Way to Make Money
From Jason Derulo TO Iggy’s Azalea AND actressthere has been a wave of celebrities flooding the meme coin world, although the initial novelty of this latest wave of celebrity coins may be wearing thin on traders, especially amidst a increase in scams aiming to capitalize on the craze through social media accounts hacked.
Rap singer Waka Flocka’s Flame (aka Juaquin James Malphurs), is part of that group of celebrities who have recently entered the world of meme coins, and in an exclusive interview with Decipherhe said he remains focused on his FLOCK community, paying little attention to other coins and what their celebrity supporters do with them.
Despite his stated commitment to the community, Flame and his team have faced insider trading charges following the launch of its meme coin FLOCKA via Solana on June 17.
Concerns have arisen over a wallet that acquired about 40% of the coin’s supply and then distributed it to multiple wallets rapidly after launch. Flame reports Decipher that traders “stole” most of the supply before the launch, leaving his team struggling and unable to adequately represent the token.
“I’ll be honest. Fuck it. What happened is we lost the coin first. People took 60% of the coin, like 70%,” he said. “So I thought, wait a minute. No, no, no, close that coin, seriously, because I don’t have one. And this is my coin. Hello? This is my narrative. This is not cool.”
Flame had been teasing the coin for days, too retweet people who said they would be snapping up any tokens that were launched, so even if the launch itself wasn’t formally announced ahead of time, meme coin traders were looking for a dip. Some traders are using sniper bots to snap up large amounts of new tokens before they’re widely announced, though in many cases like this, there’s widespread speculation that insiders gained access to the token’s contract address before the announcement tweet.
Despite insider trading speculation, which Flame denied, he wasn’t thrilled about having so many tokens out of his control. Flame told Decrypt that if something has his name on it, it should help shape that community. His team has managed to acquire a sizable share of the tokens on the market, giving Flame what he sees as a solid foundation to build on.
“How can I represent something I have no control over?” he said. “That logically didn’t make any sense. So we got 40 percent of the market.”
FLOCKA is up 8% over the past week, though like many meme coins, its price action has been volatile, falling 53% from its mid-June peak, according to data from CoinGecko.
When centralized entities launch crypto tokens, there is often a large portion of the token supply locked up in vesting programs, ensuring the team can’t offload to holders right from the start. In this case, FLOCKA holders are taking Flame’s word for it. But he said any potential early profits would go to support his team.
“I haven’t made a single dollar from it,” he said. “If anything, the only way I’m going to make money from it is because of the people who work with me. We all made this cake together. I didn’t do it alone. I don’t want to make money. I want the platform to thrive first.”
Blocking team monopoly
When he refers to the platform, he means the growing community that supports his coin. He is now expanding the FLOCKA ecosystem with the launch of a Web3 record label called Block Squad Monopoly.
Block Squad Monopoly is an on-chain record label powered by the FLOCKA token. FLOCKA holders can connect their wallets to a token-gated site and, based on the amount of tokens they own, will receive different positions in the community, such as musician, producer, manager, tour manager, and more.
To apply for a position, token holders must reach a minimum threshold, such as 1 million FLOCKA (about $1,350 in value) to apply as an artist and 200,000 FLOCKA ($270 in value) to take on the role of a graphic designer. However, all token holders will be able to vote for talent.
FLOCKA community owners will choose and vote on team members and work to distribute the label’s music as compressed NFTs. Flame said it was designed in an effort to give its community a sense of ownership and disrupt the traditional distribution process.
“It’s just about changing the way we think about and distribute music,” Flame said. “I just want to create something where the community wins, where the community creates music with a community narrative and the community can get paid for it.”
Flame will release a new song called “4th Quarter” on Dripa collectibles platform on Solana. When asked why they chose to release the song on Drip instead of Block Squad Monopoly, the Waka Flocka Flame team emphasized the importance of collaborating with others in the space.
“Collaborating and building with leaders in the space who are making a difference,” Flame’s business partner Pratheep ‘Stally’ Kanesh said of the strategy. “Vibhu [Norby]the founder [of DRiP] It was very hands-on. Block Squad has its own catalog of unreleased records coming soon.”
He stressed the importance of community participation in making important decisions.
“Let the people who actually listen to the music tell you what it’s worth,” Kanesh said.
On his reputation
Flame admitted that it frustrates him that many people have called him a rugger and a scammer, including for allegedly promoting a number of fragile cryptocurrency projects years ago. He blamed his management for past missteps in the space and perhaps even a bit of naivety about cryptocurrency.
“Damn, at first I believed everyone at first sight,” he said. Decipher when asked. “My management brought me deals and they looked good on the surface, and I guess they failed to finish what they started. But that’s why I do my own due diligence now, and FLOCKA is the only pawn I support.”
Despite this admission, Flame said that, having been in the spotlight in other industries, he is used to negativity.
“My whole life is built on being judged and misunderstood,” he said. Decipher“So why should I focus on this? I just know what I’m doing.”
He says he has permanently separated his true self from the name “Waka Flocka” and does not consider himself a celebrity, despite his success in the music industry and his sizable social media following, including 1.8 million people on Twitter (aka X).
“I understand that there are celebrities who pull rugs and stuff like that, but I’m not a celebrity. Only my name is famous,” he added. “I consider Waka Flocka a business.”
Flame adds that he has had many ups and downs in life, but he vows that he would never meddle with anyone’s livelihood. “I could play basketball with you or video games with you, but I would never play with anyone’s pockets,” he said. “Only a lazy person pulls the rug.”
Just a few weeks after the token’s launch, Flame admits he checks the price floor “every time I get off stage at night,” but “not 20 or 100 times a day.” Even with at least some attention to short-term price action, he said he’s more focused on trying to turn that initial interest into something sustainable.
“What I do now is fix the website,” he said, “make sure the technology is good, make sure our compliance is good, partner with the right people, and stay on track to get to where we want to be in the future.”