Iggy Azalea Says MOTHER Tokens Can Soon Be Used to Buy Phones

Holders of singer Iggy Azalea’s mother (MOTHER) tokens may soon be able to use the the viral cryptocurrency to pay for phones and services from the Australian rapper’s planned telecommunications company, adding utility to a token issued less than a month ago.

The development comes on the back of a MOTHER merchandise store announced last week, which contributed to a rally in the token at the time. MOTHER has advanced 18% in the past 24 hours, outpacing gains in the meme coin sector, DEXTools data shows. The CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20), a measure of the broader crypto market, has dropped 0.3%.

“Tomorrow I’m finally relaunching the telecommunication company I co-founded and you will be able to purchase phones, or month to month cell plans using $MOTHER or Sol,” Azalea wrote on X. “Ad campaign n rollout to follow late this week.”

In a follow-up tweet, she said Unreal Mobile is a service provider for the phones and that there would be “a selection of phones for purchase if needed.” The payment infrastructure will be handled by Sphere Labs, which did not offer a native token as of Monday.

Unreal’s plans range from $20 to $80 a month based on data usage and network spectrums, the site shows.

Phones sold by the Solana blockchain proved to be a success, partley because they came with an allocation of BONK tokens. All units of the flagship Saga model sold out in 2023 as sentiment around Solana-based meme tokens grew, eclipsing a dismal launch in 2022. The sales even prompted the announcement and early development of a second Saga phone, which crossed 100,000 in presale orders in February 2024.

The controversial MOTHER, issued as a celebrity meme coin in late May on Solana, saw volatile trading in its first few days as uncertainty around its actual issuer mounted among crypto circles.

The issuance sparked debate among crypto believers, with some voicing concerns that it was a possible cash grab by a celebrity and others saying it showed what broader adoption of tokens could really look like.

As such, Azalea’s continual backing of promises of long-term growth seems to have paid off for early believers as the token’s market valuation grew from under $10 million to over $200 million.