Payne became a global viral phenomenon after a massive social media campaign.
The tokens range between $0.0011 and $0.0042.
At least 25 tokens inspired by New Zealand footballer Tim Payne were created over the last week on the Solana and BNB Chain networks. The deployment of these digital assets coincides with the explosion of popularity of the athlete a few days before the start of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will officially begin on June 11.
Payne, a footballer little known outside his country until recently, became a global trend thanks to a campaign started by Argentine influencer Valentín Scarsini. The idea was to turn the least famous player in the tournament into a star. In just one week, the account of Payne’s Instagram It went from around 4,000 followers to more than 5 million. The campaign generated memes, songs and strong interaction on social networks.
Given the player’s viralization, various users issued independent tokens under their PAYNE name to take advantage of the commercial impact. According to data from the platform DEXTools financial analysisthe first tokens appeared seven days ago and the most recent one was registered 19 hours ago.
These cryptocurrencies operate under the category of memecoins, which are assets based on internet jokes with no real technical use, as explained by Criptopedia, the educational section of CriptoNoticias. Its issuance was driven by tools like Pump.Fun on Solana, a system that allows anyone to design and launch a digital currency in minutes and at a very low cost.
Currently, the prices of these token variants range between $0.0011 and $0.0042. Likewise, the networks’ trading records show that market capitalizations range between $17,000 and $424,000.
The visible value of these coins responds only to a speculative fever, practically artificial. This vulnerability facilitates the execution of scams known as “rug pull,” one of the most common frauds in the ecosystem. These maneuvers involve taking advantage of the community’s enthusiasm to sell tokens that lack basic security controls.
Users acquire the assets sending your funds to contracts controlled by strangers without realizing the risk. Once issuers raise the desired amount, they suddenly withdraw all available liquidity from the market, abandon the project and delete any digital trace, leaving buyers’ tokens without any commercial value.
The case of Tim Payne shows how media attention can boost prices in the short term, but it also reveals the fragility of these assets. While some tokens managed to gain temporary attention, most may quickly lose value as public interest wanes.