Viral rapper 'Island Boys' hype 'Crypedia' cryptocurrency on social media

Yahoo Finance Live hosts Zack Guzman and Akiko Fujita discuss viral TikTok personalities the Island Boys advertising cryptocurrency investments into the Crypedia project, as well as other celebrity endorsements of crypto.

Video Transcript

ZACK GUZMAN: Well, in today's Hot Takes, an interesting update from the Island Boys. If you know them, if you're on TikTok, they went viral, a duo of identical twin rappers posting on their Instagram story here about a crypto project, Crypedia, and linking to one of those fundraisers for it out there. And Akiko brought to mind a couple of the issues that we saw in the last big bull market cycle when other celebrities, or influencers maybe I should say, came out and advocated for a couple different crypto projects, including the likes of Floyd Mayweather who got fined $300,000 and had to pay $300,000 in disgorgement attached to hyping a crypto project without mention that he was paid to do so.

The SEC brought that against him and DJ Khalid as well and took down the company behind that with charges of fraud. And it raises questions about it this time around too, reached out to the Island Boys. We don't know if they were paid. I'm going to assume they were because it's a very small project. Reached out to the project as well. Project looks a little dubious when we think about what they're claiming, including a potential 100x upside here with the project, which tries to create crypto opportunities in booking travel.

But it raises a lot of questions about what Gary Gensler wants to do in his term here in policing some of this stuff. Because we've talked about the Kardashians doing crypto again, and increasingly we've seen a lot of NFT projects out there too. So I don't know the right way to go about this. I'm not the head of the SEC. I'm not sure which projects are big enough, or which celebrities are big enough to maybe pursue here. But you do wonder when he's going to do something.

AKIKO FUJITA: I appreciate you doing due diligence, Zack, on the Island Boys. I mean, I don't pretend to have an intelligent reaction to this specifically. But you're right. I mean, it's still about the regulation. I mean, if you're talking about the Floyd Mayweather example, that seems to suggest that there are some guardrails in place. But I mean, what are you hearing about the timeline and when we're likely to hear from the SEC?

ZACK GUZMAN: Right, I mean you think those guidelines would have been well established by now in terms of, don't shill anything. I mean, we saw this too with the hashtag ad movement when celebrities were talking about products that they're endorsers of. They have to disclose that they are paid endorsers. Happened with Kim Kardashian too when she was talking about certain things on Instagram. So I mean, those rules are out there. The reason why I do the due diligence here, Akiko, is because I am an island boy myself. We are all island boys at the end of the day, if you're a big fan of these rappers.

And you want to look out for them. Maybe they don't know these rules. Maybe a lot of people don't know these rules. But generally good conditions to live by that you shouldn't be shilling things that you haven't also done your due diligence on. At least in the long run, I would think that that would be the appropriate way to build a fan base. That would be my hot take here, Akiko, as we all try and, I guess, figure out what's real and what's not in the crypto world.

AKIKO FUJITA: And I'm just going to agree with you, Zack, on your hot take on this--