Iggy Azalea, known professionally as Amethyst Amelia Kelly, is embroiled in a federal class action lawsuit filed in New York. The suit alleges she misled investors about the real-world utility and development of her Solana-based meme coin, MOTHER.
The complaint lodged on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York asserts that Azalea falsely promoted the token as having substantial commercial integrations and use cases that never came to fruition, leading investors to suffer losses.
“This case transcends typical cryptocurrency volatility or speculative asset decline risks,” stated the plaintiffs’ legal team. “It revolves around a celebrity-driven campaign that persuaded consumers to buy and retain a digital token based on specific, substantial claims about its real-world utility, commercial integrations, institutional market maker support, and ongoing development.”
Representative plaintiff Kenneth Kolbrak from Wisconsin is seeking compensation for investors who incurred losses after purchasing MOTHER due to Azalea’s assertions regarding the coin’s potential use cases.
Azalea introduced her meme coin in 2024 amid a surge of celebrity-backed crypto tokens, achieving rapid success. The token reached a market cap exceeding $200 million within weeks and peaked at around $0.23 per token, translating to an approximate valuation of $227 million based on total supply. However, according to CoinGecko data, it has since plummeted over 99%.
Azalea’s active involvement in the project included extensive social media promotion, community engagement, and linking MOTHER to a broader ecosystem comprising events, a planned casino dubbed Motherland, among other ventures like a telecommunications service and retail marketplace.
The lawsuit alleges that while Azalea touted Motherland as being powered by MOTHER, it used USDT for core operations upon its 2025 launch. It also claims promised functionalities such as purchasing phones and paying bills through Unreal Mobile with MOTHER, and using the token exclusively on DreamVault, were never realized.
“As of this complaint’s filing date, no verifiable MOTHER payment integration is publicly observable on the Unreal Mobile platform,” it states.
Additional scrutiny surrounds Azalea’s ties to crypto market makers Wintermute and DWF Labs. Though these partnerships were presented as signs of institutional backing, the lawsuit argues that investors were left uninformed about how these firms could trade the token or impact its price dynamics.
The lawsuit seeks investor damages, including statutory compensation and potentially triple damages, alongside attorney fees and a jury trial. It also mentions unnamed “Doe Defendants” for individuals yet to be identified.
Burwick Law, known in crypto circles for pursuing meme coin promoters, filed the lawsuit on behalf of investors. The firm previously litigated against Hailey Welch, dubbed the “Hawk Tuah” girl, and her token promoters but has not yet secured judgments in any such cases, as most are still awaiting trial.
Requests for comment from Azalea’s representatives and Burwick Law to Decrypt remain unanswered.