By
Temitope Olatunji
February 12th, 2024
A reality television star and entrepreneur is planning to invest in a blockchain startup backed by a man who was earlier accused of domestic violence.
Paris Hilton, a socialite and Hilton hotel chain heiress, has just joined the growing list of stars promoting cryptocurrency ICOs.
Initial Coin Offerings have become a popular instrument among technology startups looking to raise funds. They allow companies to get money directly from investors and bypass the regulated fundraising process required by venture capitalists and banks.
On Monday, Hilton posted on Twitter that she is going to take part in an upcoming crowdsale of Lydian, a new platform that merges blockchain technology with AI driven digital advertising services.
Lydian was launched by Gravity4, a leading big data marketing cloud whose chief executive, Gubaksh Chahal, was convicted of beating his girlfriend three years ago. In 2016, the entrepreneur was sentenced to 12 months in jail after he violated his domestic violence probation.
Lydian plans to raise $100 million in an ICO by selling 20 million tokens that will allow its holders to acquire existing market tested products and services.
The new project is aimed at improving the effectiveness of ad marketing campaigns and minimizing the risk of ad fraud which cost companies billions of dollars each year. By using the blockchain technology, the startup will solve the issues of transparency and trust currently faced by the digital marketing industry. Overall, the combination of AI and blockchain may change any industry that involves large amounts of data, as it digitizes and decentralizes the validation of transactions.
Hilton, meantime, is not the first celebrity advertising ICOs. In July, an undefeated boxing champion Floyd Mayweather promoted the ICO of a blockchain-based prediction platform Stox.com. The fighter posted a picture on Instagram of him in a private jet with the caption, “I’m gonna make a $hit t$n of money on August 2nd on the Stox.com ICO.”
Stox managed to attract more than $30 million in just two days since the start of its crowdsale, what is partly due to the promotions from Mayweather.
Last week, it got additional attention after being advertised by Barcelona striker Luis Suarez, who tweeted about the alpha testing of the platform.
I'm excited about the Alpha launch of the world's best prediction market next week!
You in?
🏆https://t.co/xDnbmeLYdq 🏆#ETH #STX #STOX pic.twitter.com/ayD3zspfw7
— Luis Suárez (@LuisSuarez9) August 25, 2017
Recently, Mayweather also used his Instagram account to support Hubii Network, a media tech company that launched an ICO a few days ago.
Amid the growing popularity of token sales, the People’s Bank of China announced today that it will strictly punish all ICO-related activities in the country. According to the bank, the startups currently running crowdsales must stop them immediately and should make all the arrangements to return the money back to investors.