According to a press statement released by the celebrity’s media group, the Azalea-Thrust collaboration will see her token MOTHER migrate to Thrust’s platform by the end of 2025. Australian rapper and entrepreneur Iggy Azalea has joined a new Solana-based memecoin launchpad called Thrust as a creative director and partner. Thrust officially launched on Wednesday as a curated platform for verified creators and public figures who would like to venture into Web3 and digital currencies. Iggy Azalea joins Thrust to help celebrities launch memecoins Azalea, who first launched her MOTHER token in 2024, said her interest in Thrust came along with her desire to create a legitimate and sustainable ecosystem for fans and creators. She also reportedly holds equity in the company. Speaking at the Blockchain Futuristic Conference in Florida on Wednesday, she surmised that “the term token is used loosely,” when celebrities launch digital coins. “It’s not just that I aesthetically decide what things look like for Thrust as a company,” she said in an interview. “I’m a large part of the concepts when we’re white-gloving these celebrities onboard. I guess it’s almost like being a godmother.” According to Thrust co-founder and CEO Jake Antifaev, the platform directly responds to the lack of legitimacy plaguing celebrity-backed crypto projects. “Celebrity memecoins have gotten a bad rap because they were never built on legitimacy or accountability. Culture Tokens is our way of changing that. Every launch on Thrust is vetted, contracted, and transparent, so both creators and fans know exactly what they’re getting into,” he said. The company’s developers insist Thrust will address systemic problems in the memecoin market through the platform’s secure onboarding experience that connects users to specific fandoms through verified creators. Each token launched on Thrust will reportedly undergo a due diligence process to prevent the kind of pump-and-dump schemes that have tarnished the industry’s image, and according to Azalea, celebrities will have zero ownership of the token’s allocation. Azalea joined by a Twitch streamer in crypto business Azalea’s partnership with Thrust also entailed the signing of her friend and fellow online personality streamer Rangesh “N3on” Muthama, who co-owns her digital casino venture, MOTHERLAND. Muthama will become a partner in the platform, helping to develop community engagement strategies and creator onboarding initiatives. Azalea’s MOTHERLAND casino, launched earlier this year, uses the MOTHER token as its gaming and reward system. However, the rapper recently admitted that she had to rethink the project’s direction. “Not long ago, I was leaning into an online casino that’s built around my MOTHER token,” she said. “But I realized it can’t onboard other people into this chaos while creating value to pay for things, throw events, and do stuff.” When asked about how she came to launch her token, the rapper admitted that she was brought into the market by “fire,” and she is mostly assisted by her foster “smart and cool” 24-year-old brother, Mathias. “I’ve been kinda hellbent to see the demise of what I think is essentially rugpulls based on speculation. We see this in a lot of memecoins, sometimes they aren’t real projects. It’s particularly more rampant with celebrity launches … What if somebody delivered something that is what you guys wanted,” she said in the fireside chat, alluding to why she and her token are now part of Thrust. Celebrity crypto involvement to change with Thrust The debut of Thrust comes at a time when the crypto community is signaling high skepticism towards celebrity-backed tokens, many of which have failed or faced allegations of pump-and-dump manipulation. As reported by Cryptopolitan over the past two years, tokens promoted by popular names like Caitlyn Jenner, Jason Derulo, Cardi B, Ye, and Hailey Welch have steeply declined in valuation after hype cycles that barely last a week. Thrust is reportedly preparing another memecoin collaboration with actress Megan Fox, with a release targeted for late November 2025. Get seen where it counts. Advertise in Cryptopolitan Research and reach crypto’s sharpest investors and builders.
