- The recent spate of celebrities promoting specific cryptocurrencies has been laid at the door of TRON
- YouTuber Marques Brownlee revealed today how TRON tried to involve him in covertly promoting the cryptocurrency
- Linday Lohan, NeYo, and Soulja Boy have all been targeted by TRON’s PR company in recent weeks
The TRON PR team has attempted to fend off allegations that they are paying celebrities to discreetly promote the cryptocurrency, following a video by YouTuber Marques Brownlee that exposes the practice. Brownlee posted a video showing how TRON tried to recruit him to promote their token on the understanding he wouldn’t reveal that it was a sponsored post, which is completely against Securities and Exchange Commission guidelines, and laid bare the sneaky ways in which TRON is trying to go about influencing the cryptocurrency-buying public.
TRON Wanted to Avoid Appearance of “Sponsored Tweet”
A number of celebrities including Lindsay Lohan and Soulja Boy have been spotted promoting a number of cryptocurrencies in recent weeks, with one very prominent token among the list they’re ‘interested’ in – TRX. TRON is well known for its shady and often shameless promotion, so it didn’t take long for internet sleuths to find a link between them, with that link being promotion of TRX.
The marketing stunt seems to have blown up in TRON’s face however, following a video by popular YouTuber Marques Brownlee, in which he revealed an email he received from TRON’s PR company where he is asked for his “honest opinion” on TRON, asking that Brownlee “need not make it look like a “sponsored tweet”…although they are “happy to compensate him” for this opinion:
For guidance on what Brownlee should say, the email handily offers three recent example tweets from celebrities TRON has already snared. Brownlee refers to the tactics employed by TRON as “insincere” and “try hard”, which shows that he hasn’t had much exposure to Justin Sun.
Justin Sun Tries to Distance Himself
Talking of Sun, the TRON founder was quick to rush around putting out the fire distance himself from the emails, sending two tweets that, he hoped, would absolve him of any blame:
There have been rumors lately of third party celebrities being paid to promote #TRON. #TRON Foundation is not involved in these activities. Nor is the foundation aware of the actors behind this.
— Justin Sun🌞 (@justinsuntron) February 16, 2021
Hi Marques, I am Justin Sun, the founder of #TRON. Sorry this was not authorized by the #TRON foundation. We will work with our community and see if we can find out any information about this incident.
— Justin Sun🌞 (@justinsuntron) February 16, 2021
Sadly, for him, the community didn’t quite take his side:
You see this is what really pisses me off with this space. This is the owner of No 20 $3BN + MC project and he openly lies on twitter.
This type of shit has to stop, there has to be consequences and sooner rather than later.
🤬🤬🤬🤬 So sick of this place sometimes
— TipsyTiger (Still Tiger Mike) (@TigerMike15) February 16, 2021
Yes, I’m sure Lindsey Lohan has become incredibly passionate about decentralized permisionless blockchain
— Altcoin Psycho (@AltcoinPsycho) February 16, 2021
As we have seen with ICOs in the past, obtaining celebrity endorsement can often land everyone involved in hot water with regulators, and the fact that none of the tweets were labeled as sponsored posts, as requested by TRON, might have consequences further down the road.
