For several hours, news of the death of pint-sized influencer and rapper, Lil Tay, was all over the internet. The story started after her official, verified Instagram account announced her passing. But it wasn’t true.
Oddly enough, the 14-year-old appeared to launch a cryptocurrency the day after her death was announced. But the reports of her demise turned out to be a hoax. In statements to the media, Lil Tay’s representatives have said that her Instagram account had been compromised.
A Lil Tay Token Launched After Supposed Demise
Strangely, her father, Christopher Hope, had declined to give any comment throughout the saga. Refusing to confirm or deny his daughter’s passing to multiple media organizations.
Lil Tay’s former manager, Harry Tsang, was also unable to confirm her passing when Insider approached him. Now we understand a little more about why—the 14-year-old was alive all along.
The cryptocurrency, also called Lil Tay, launched on the BNB Smart Chain on Thursday morning with a total supply of only 100 coins. At present, the identity of whoever was behind the launch is a mystery.
Speculation is rife that the project was coordinated with her hoax death as a quick money-making scheme. However, there appears to only be one holder of the token at the time of this writing.
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However, on August 10, the Twitter account @liltaytoken denied any relationship to the newly created cryptocurrency. In a strange twist, the second yet-to-be-released token is also under the aegis of her former manager, Harry Tsang.
Tsang told Insider that he had been working on the token since April. BeInCrypto has approached the project to ask whether it had been authorized by Lil Tay herself. The post on X (formerly Twitter) read:
“Sharing this to let everybody know that we will not be launching anything soon. We’ve been in development for 4-5 months now. If anybody is reaching out to you for money saying they’re involved with $liltay it’s not true. If you see another token/coin with liltay it’s a scam.”
A statement provided to TMZ by a member of her family regarding the death read:
“I want to make it clear that my brother and I are safe and alive, but I’m completely heartbroken, and struggling to even find the right words to say. It’s been a very traumatizing 24 hours. All day yesterday, I was bombarded with endless heartbreaking and tearful phone calls from loved ones all while trying to sort out this mess.”
Many News Outlets Refused to Report the Hoax
The unlikely child celebrity first came to public attention at the age of nine in a series of strange videos where she played the character of a brash, sweary rapper, calling herself the “youngest flexer.”
On X, formerly known as Twitter, a BBC journalist detailed his ten-hour effort to confirm the news of her death. Daniel Rosney reportedly contacted local police, and management, in order to substantiate the claims.
As a result, the BBC, and many other mainstream media outlets, refused to report the story. “It’s also just a reminder that just because it’s online – and even on a verified Instagram account – it isn’t always true,” he said.
Lil Tay is only the latest celebrity to give crypto a bad name. According to reports, Logan Paul, the YouTube celebrity behind the CryptoZoo scam, still hasn’t refunded his victims over six months later.
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