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Kim Kardashian just got hit with a HUGE fine for posting an Instagram story. Last June, she had posted a story encouraging her followers to buy "EthereumMax", a type of cryptocurrency. Today, it's come out that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) fined her 1.26 MILLION DOLLARS for the post!!
While the story Kim posted did disclose that it was a #ad, the SEC said that the post didn't include all the information that was legally required for crypto endorsements. She was originally paid $250,000 to talk about the crypto online - a small fraction of the fine she owns! She's also now agreed not to endorse any forms of crypto for the next 3 years.
On top of this, Kim K, boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. and basketball player Paul Pierce are now all part of a class action lawsuit that claims they "artificially inflated" the value of EthereumMax by having their fans buy into it. In crypto terms, it's a "pump and dump", and it eventually leads to the crypto crashing in value (and yes, EthereumMax did crash).
The SEC wants this to serve as a reminder that just because your fave celeb promotes an investment opportunity, it doesn't mean that it's the right one for you.