Malik Obama, the older half-brother of former president Barack Obama, has issued an apology to those who lost money after he was supposedly pressed to launch a meme coin, $OBAMA. The token's price crashed within a few hours in what appears to be the latest pump and dump scheme to sweep the crypto world.
"Hello folks. Someone paid me a little bit of money to launch $OBAMA, and said it would be great promotion for my book and that I would make a lot of money," the Kenyan-American businessman posted to X on Monday. "I didn't realise they were bad actors. I'm sorry to anyone who lost out."
Newsweek has reached out to Malik Obama via X for further comment.
Why It Matters
While Malik Obama, related to the former president through their father, Barack Obama Sr., is far from a household name, the launch of the $OBAMA token highlights the growing trend of online personalities launching crypto-focused ventures.
Similar meme coins—highly volatile digital assets inspired by contemporary internet trends—have been launched by such figures as Hailey Welch (Hawk Tuah Girl), with now both Melania and President Donald Trump following suit.
Experts have warned that these tokens, given their lack of inherent financial utility, present easy opportunities for "pump-and-dump" schemes—in which small groups of investors inflate their value by generating community buzz, only to cash out once the coin peaks and leave the majority counting their losses.
However, some tokens which originated through online jokes or trends have been able to establish themselves as more legitimate cryptocurrencies and claw back some of their peak value, Dogecoin being a notable example.
What To Know
"Hey folks, I've got a new coin out. Malik Obama Coin. So everybody jump in. This is for real folks," Obama said in a video posted to X on Monday morning.
Trading volume in the new token was significant, according to crypto exchange data and tracking platform GeckoTerminal, with a total of nearly 72,000 transactions worth around $12.4 million registered in under 24 hours following Malik's announcement.
The token, hosted on the Solana blockchain platform, surged to a peak of $0.006739 after several crypto-focused accounts jumped on the launch, before swiftly sinking to near its current value of $0.00005092.
What People Are Saying
Economic historian Dr. Garrick Hileman has likened meme coins, given the high buy-sell trading volume that usually follows their launch, to a game of "musical chairs."
Hileman previously told Newsweek: "I think the financial desperation that many young people, in particular, feel is driving the speculative craze in not just meme coins, but also sports gambling, social media stunts, etc. There is not enough discussion of the underlying root causes of these phenomenon."
Entrepreneur and investor Balaji Srinivasan, similarly, has called meme coins a "zero-sum lottery."
"There is no wealth creation. Every buy order is simply matched by a sell order," Srinivasan posted to X following the launch of President Trump's meme coin. "And after an initial spike, the price eventually crashes and the last buyers lose everything."
What Happens Next?
In his apology on X, Malik Obama said that he was convinced to launch the meme coin to promote his autobiography, Big Bad Brother From Kenya, and that he was consulting "with some of the best people in the space" to rectify the harm caused by the token's price crash.
Newsweek has inquired who these individuals are, as well as the "bad actors" who encouraged him to launch the coin.
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About the writer
Hugh Cameron is Newsweek Live News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on international politics, conflict, and ... Read more