WATER memecoin gains recede after Ronaldinho’s promo

Solana-based memecoin WATER experienced a brief surge in value after a second football icon promoted the project on social media, before retracing back to levels seen on Monday.

On Tuesday, former Brazilian football star Ronaldinho Gaucho promoted the so-called charitable memecoin Water (WATER) on Instagram. Ronaldinho was the second sporting legend to post about WATER on Instagram stories, following Lionel Messi, who was unveiled as an official representative on Monday.

Water has stacked two globally recognized athletes and celebrities within two days, but little is known about the project’s plan to support charitable causes.

In response to a comment request from crypto.news, a project representative said WATER has engaged in a plethora of initiatives, including mitigating the aftermath of the massive floods in Southern Ukraine, helping educate local communities in Northern Brazil, and providing 4,000 people in Uganda and Ethiopia with clean water. At press time, crypto.news had not verified these claims.

According to WATER’s official website, the token was created in partnership with the BEER memecoin team and “stands out with a clear purpose,” unlike other memecoins. The project said combating deforestation and improving water distribution in Africa are top priorities. However, details about achieving these goals and the funding source have yet to be shared.

“Right now, we are looking into the limits of the possibilities providing hundreds of thousands of dollars to have a clear and direct impact in multiple places around the world,” a WATER spokesperson told crypto.news in a private note. The representative added the team has multiple ways of generating money, including market-making fees.

Another excerpt from the website notes that a publicly known wallet address would be shared for observers to track donations and campaign disbursements.  The pseudonymous team added, “WATER is a meme coin with no intrinsic value or expectation of financial return. WATER is completely useless and for entertainment purposes only.”

It’s unclear how close the ties between the Brazilian and Water memecoin are going by a single social media post. Ronaldinho previously denied involvement in a crypto scam leveraging his identity last year.

After Messi and Ronaldinho had amplified the token to nearly 600 million users combined, Water jumped by over 200% on Tuesday per DEX Screener. By Wednesday, WATER had returned much of its gains and was up a modest 2.4%, hovering around a $69 million market cap.