What is the deal with Ethereum Max?  

A post on the celebrity’s instagram stories back in June is now getting some unwelcome attention from the head of U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority Charles Randell.  

Randall called out Kim Kardashian West, in particular, in a speech to the Cambridge International Symposium on Economics Crime as he discussed risks in crypto and the needs for token regulation.

Here’s an excerpt from his speech: “Which brings me on to Kim Kardashian West. When she was recently paid to ask her 250 million Instagram followers to speculate on crypto tokens by ’joining the Ethereum Max Community‘, it may have been the financial promotion with the single biggest audience reach in history.”

The concern is that her ad could have easily been confused with Ethereum.”Ethereum Max” is a newer token created by unknown developers. More importantly the price peak, to date, for the not-ethereum coin coincided with Kim’s Instagram ad going live. She is rumored to receive up to $1 million or more per Instagram post.

Despite the name and the similar look of the logo, its is not affiliated with any of the developers behind the already well established Ethereum digital currency known as “Ether” or ETH. 

Not only that, but her massive payday for boosting the coin coincided with a price crash for the token immediately thereafter. A classic pump-and-dump scenario.

It is unknown if the E-Max founders and her client, or even she herself “double-dipped” and sold on the bump she and her ad orchestrated, but that, along with the potential victims that bought at the high and subsequently were left holding the bag, are exactly what the questions are all about.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) cautioned against “hype” in the marketing of cryptocurrencies, particularly new tokens backed by celebrities that may end up being fake, as reported in The Guardian.

This is where is the big issue arises since this problem is a fairly common one, generally because crypto names are sometimes not copyrighted, and therefore there can be many look-a-likes, and these can often be riddled with higher risks, etc. 

The speculative token hasn’t officially been deemed a scam, however it is quite common for social media influencers to get paid large sums of money by the developers of scam products and services, with little regard to those being “scammed” (that is to say, the general public targeted with the ads) or the total amounts of money lost in “pump-and-dump” schemes. 

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