Lionel Messi Backs Solana’s WaterCoin in Environmental Awareness Push

• Lionel Messi has endorsed the Solana-based memecoin Water on his Instagram.

• Following the endorsement, the coin surged by almost 60%.

Argentinian football star Lionel Messi has endorsed the Solana-based memecoin Water (WATER), adding a significant milestone to the project’s marketing achievements. Messi is a famous football player and the captain of FC Barcelona and the Argentinian national team. He endorsed WaterCoin via his Instagram story, which has 504 million followers.

This was confirmed by the representative of WaterCoin, who said that Messi was the official ambassador of the project. 

The first time ever Messi is promoting a Memecoin via Instagram $WATER , IS THAT MESSIS MEMECOIN?! pic.twitter.com/h0SxKTCrqq

— WALL STREET BINANCE (@Wallstreet_bnb) July 8, 2024

Following Messi’s endorsement, WaterCoin experienced a significant surge in value. The token’s price surged by almost 60%, according to data from CoinGecko, immediately after Messi posted about it. However, the gains have since stabilized, showing a more modest 4.5% increase.

WaterCoin, which was introduced only two weeks ago, already has a capitalization of $73.6 million and a daily turnover of more than $105 million, according to DEX Screener. 

WaterCoin Aims to Raise Awareness About Water Issues

WaterCoin aims to create awareness of water concerns and intends to be an ecological coin. As stated in the project’s documentation, the roadmap defines four phases of the project. First is the pre-sale of the token, then moves to the list on the central exchange, and third, is a celebrity endorsement. The last stage is to make WaterCoin a “charity-oriented environmental currency.” However, the roadmap lacks detailed plans for achieving these goals, raising questions about the project’s long-term viability.

During its pre-sale, Water was able to raise an estimated $42 million in SOL.

The team reports that they sent $200,000 in Bitcoin (BTC) to provide clean water for 4,000 people in Uganda and Ethiopia. Additionally, they have donated $240,000 equivalent of WaterCoin to various charities.

Messi’s endorsement shows the increasing celebrity involvement in the cryptocurrency market. Such endorsements usually result in higher levels of trading and public awareness of the promoted tokens. However, due to their high volatility and the fact that they are mostly used in speculation, such endorsements can lead to price changes even within a short period.

Blockchain Technology Opens New Avenues for Environmental Protection

Blockchain and cryptocurrency are new opportunities for the protection of the environment. Due to their openness and the ability to be based on the community, they can enable trustless crowd-sourcing, organization, and on-chain validation. For instance, in 2022, Samsung implemented blockchain solutions to monitor tree planting in Madagascar via Veritree, with a target to alleviate 1 billion pounds of carbon within 25 years. 

The environmental concern that has been raised about Bitcoin has raised the awareness of the sustainable mining process. Some of the practices include; adopting renewable energy such as solar, geothermal, and nuclear energy. In this regard, El Salvador has been quite progressive, recently revealing that it had mined 474 Bitcoin with the help of geothermal energy from volcanoes.