Kanye West Turns Down Millions to Promote a Memecoin, But Dave Portnoy Is All In

West seemed to initially express interest in memecoins last Friday, writing: “WHEN PEOPLE MAKE ALL THAT MONEY WITH A COIN IS THAT CASH OR CONCEPT.”

Prominent crypto enthusiasts were quick to suggest that the rapper capitalize on the memecoin craze. Pump.fun, the Solana-based crypto trading platform behind many viral memecoin launches, responded to one of West's posts by advocating for him to "channel Andrew Tate and launch a coin." Tate, an internet influencer known for his controversial opinions about women, launched a memecoin in July that initially climbed to a market cap of more than $120 million before dipping to less than $20 million.

However, according to West, he had already turned down a multimillion-dollar deal to promote a "fake ye currency."

"I was proposed 2 million to scam my community. Those left of it. I said no and stopped working with their person who proposed it," he wrote. He included a screenshot of a conversation with an unnamed person that outlined the details of the offer.

Although he shut down speculation about a potential memecoin, West didn't rule out interest in crypto altogether. Later on Sunday, West posted a screenshot of a text conversation with an unidentified person in which the rapper requested to speak with Brian Armstrong, the CEO of major crypto exchange Coinbase. According to a caption written alongside the screenshot, West wanted to have a conversation "concerning crypto."

West is out of the memecoin game, but other celebrities are all in. Dave Portnoy, the president of media company Barstool Sports, is promoting his own memecoin, $JAILSTOOL, which launched on crypto exchange Kraken on Sunday. Following the launch, Portnoy wrote on X that he put "100s of thousands of my own money into #jailstool." The cryptocurrency initially reached a market cap of $200 million, but has dropped 75% over the past 24 hours.

The $JAILSTOOL memecoin follows other crypto boosting from Portnoy. On Friday, he began promoting multiple memecoins on X, including the Josh Allen MVP coin—a cryptocurrency celebrating the Buffalo Bills quarterback—and a coin called "Montoya Por Favor" named after a viral meme from a Spanish reality-TV show. The two memecoins skyrocketed to market caps of more than $10 million each before crashing to fractions of that.

Portnoy said that regardless of $JAILSTOOL's recent crash, he will continue to hold on to the cryptocurrency.

"I won’t sell a dime till 1 billion," he wrote on X. "I’m still holding it all. Coulda sold at 6 million. Didn’t."