Nikolas Sargeant
Brazilian football legend Ronaldinho has stepped into the cryptocurrency arena with the launch of STAR10, a digital token built on the BNB Chain. The World Cup winner announced the project through his official X account, positioning the token as a bridge between the football world and blockchain technology.
STAR10 launched with a total supply of 1 billion tokens, offering holders access to exclusive challenges, rewards, and football-related events. The project aims to leverage Ronaldinho's global fanbase while creating new digital experiences for football enthusiasts in the Web3 space.
Suspicious Trading Activity Raises Red Flags
Concerning trading patterns emerged just hours after the token's launch, suggesting possible market manipulation. Blockchain intelligence firm Lookonchain identified a wallet connected to the STAR10 team engaging in suspicious high-value transactions on March 2.
According to on-chain data, this wallet invested 80 BNB (approximately $50,000) to acquire 122.45 million STAR10 tokens—representing over 12% of the total supply. More troubling, the same wallet sold 1 million tokens just 30 minutes later for 433 BNB ($270,000), while retaining 121.44 million tokens valued at approximately $33.5 million.
These strategic transactions directly impacted market performance. Following the large purchase, STAR10's price jumped 15% from $0.35 to $0.40, as recorded by CoinGecko. The subsequent large sale triggered a 10% price correction to $0.36 within half an hour, while trading volume exploded 300% from 5 million to 20 million tokens.
Further investigation by Onchain Lens revealed another wallet connected to insider activity transformed an initial $29,247 investment into nearly $5 million in unrealized gains. This wallet acquired 20.79 million STAR10 tokens for 48 BNB, selling only a small fraction while holding tokens now worth $4.93 million.
STAR10 currently trades at $0.2378 with a market capitalization of $237 million, according to Dexscreener data. Ronaldinho, who has served as a United Nations ambassador for Sport, Development, and Peace since 2006, has not addressed these trading concerns.
Meme Tokens Dominated Crypto Interest Throughout 2024
The STAR10 launch comes amid continued fascination with speculative tokens. According to a comprehensive CoinGecko report, meme coins captured nearly one-third of all crypto investor interest in 2024.
The analysis, examining site traffic patterns from January through December 21, revealed that 31% of cryptocurrency-related searches focused on these highly speculative assets. The "main meme coin narrative" alone represented 15% of total interest—increasing more than six percentage points compared to 2023 figures.
Solana-based meme tokens emerged as the fourth most popular category with an 8% share of interest. Additional meme coin subcategories, including those built on Coinbase's Base blockchain and AI-themed tokens, also ranked among the year's top crypto narratives, further cementing the sector's dominant position in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
