Will Smith Slap Token: Another Meme Currency Over Controversy?

A newly-created cryptocurrency called Will Smith Slap Token has seen a massive surge recently.

When you are a famous person, it is hard to stay away from controversies. But what if you invite them on your own? During the 94th Academy Awards ceremony when presenter Chris Rock cracked a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith, actor Will Smith lost his cool and smacked Chris Rock. Even though Will Smith made a public apology for his actions, there was already a lot of reaction. In less than 24 hours since megastar Will Smith permanently damaged his public image by slapping Chris Rock, a man half his size, the cryptosphere has launched at least two projects purporting to somehow put the event on the blockchain. Despite no logical connection between crypto and the slap heard around the world, a newly-created cryptocurrency called Will Smith Slap Token has seen a massive surge over the last day.

But does that mean you should invest in Will Smith Slap Token? So the answer is WAIT, meme tokens often arrive to capitalize on a viral moment, like flowers blooming after rain. But they rarely stay fresh for long.

What Happened: A token called Will Smith Inu WSI/USD began trading on decentralized exchange Uniswap UNI/USD shortly after the events at the Oscars unfolded.

The Ethereum-based token amassed a trading volume of US$3.65 million in the last day and has since lost most of its value. The token was still up 287% as of Tuesday morning. As it is fairly simple to create a blockchain-based digital asset using the ERC-20 or BEP-20 token standard, meme-coin creators have often quickly capitalized on current trends to make quick profits.

Last year, a token inspired by Netflix Inc's Squid Game saw a similar rise and fall in value. Despite being labeled an obvious scam, the token saw an 83,000% surge in price before crashing to zero. Because the crypto market is global, and because you can sell more or less any token on a decentralized exchange (DEX), these shallow deceptions gain some trading momentum and volume. But they're fundamentally tricks, and almost all of them collapse as fast as they rise.

Hence, though Will Smith Slap Token sounds funny and appealing it's ideal to wait rather than lose it all.