Messi and the meme coin WATER: how one Instagram post led to a 350% increase

Lionel Messi, the legendary Argentine footballer, promoted an unusual meme token WATER on the Solana platform through his Instagram, which triggered a sharp surge of interest in the project. Within a few hours, the token’s price experienced an impressive jump, attracting the attention of the crypto community and raising serious questions about the risks associated with celebrity-endorsed meme coins.

Football Star Promotes Mysterious WATER Token

On Monday, Messi shared an Instagram story featuring an image of the project’s mascot — a cartoon water glass sitting on his shoulder. The post included a link to the project’s page, instantly drawing the attention of his tens of millions of followers. The market reaction was immediate: within the first two hours after posting, WATER’s price soared from $0.00032 to $0.00146, a 356% increase.

Although the token later retreated from this peak, it still showed impressive growth. At the time of analysis, WATER was trading just above $0.001, demonstrating a 215.6% increase in 24 hours according to CoinMarketCap data. The project’s market capitalization was around $94 million, with a daily trading volume of just under $40 million.

Connection to Bitget Explains Messi’s Clear Support

According to information from the project’s website, WATER is positioned as an initiative aiming to “make a positive impact on the real world through charity.” However, the specific mechanisms for implementing this mission remain unclear to investors.

A key detail is that Bitget, one of the major cryptocurrency exchanges where WATER is available for purchase, may explain the sudden attention from the sports star. Messi has been in a partnership with Bitget since October 2022, indicating a potential behind-the-scenes business arrangement. Attempts to contact Messi’s team for an official comment were unsuccessful.

Crypto Community Skeptical of Yet Another Meme Project

This is not the first time celebrities have used their status to promote meme coins. Earlier this year, media personality Caitlyn Jenner and rapper Iggy Azalea earned significant sums from the wave of Solana meme tokens. However, such actions have repeatedly attracted criticism for potentially exploiting uninformed fans for quick profit.

Messi’s message about WATER was met with skepticism in the crypto community. Analyst @ericonomics left a sharp comment on X (formerly Twitter): “They’ll probably start dumping liquidity soon, so do yourself a favor and don’t buy this.” He also pointed out a troubling pattern: “This is the third token scam promoted by Messi.”

History Repeats: Messi’s Failed Attempts to Promote Tokens

According to the same analyst, the first project was Leafty, which turned out to be a classic rug pull — developers withdrew liquidity less than five days after launch. The second project, Planet, also became a slow rug pull scheme, losing about 90% of its value after promotional activity.

Interestingly, after Messi’s Instagram post, the project also received support from Ronaldinho, another football legend and Brazilian superstar, who also promoted WATER on his profile. This led to an additional spike in the token’s price. However, Ronaldinho also did not provide an official comment regarding his involvement in promoting the meme coin.

The WATER situation illustrates a growing trend of celebrities being involved in Solana meme projects, where the risk of losing investments remains extremely high for ordinary investors influenced by famous personalities.