This weekend, JKN Global Group, owner of the Miss Universe Organization, posted a notice online asserting that the “Miss Universe Coin” formally launched during last week’s Philippine Blockchain Week (PBW) conference is a “fraud”.
First announced during PBW’s September 7 press event, the “Miss Universe Gold Coin” was positioned as an official token that fans could use to participate in the pageant. According to PBW lead convener Donald Lim, this token would be the only way for fans to send in votes during the upcoming pageant.
Vincent Song, Global VP of XT.com took to the PBW stage on September 19 and expounded further on how the token would transform how pageants are run. Using the Gold Coin, he claimed, token holders could:
- gain access to Miss Universe events,
- cast votes during the pageant,
- send gifts to Miss Universe contestants,
- and pay for Miss Universe products, among other uses.
Song also expressed during his presentation the group’s expectations of the Miss Universe Gold Coin being incredibly valuable, benchmarking its potential market cap to that of popular memecoin $SHIB.
Both in the lead up to the conference and during the event itself, the Miss Universe Coin was explicitly positioned as an official component of the upcoming global pageant — a fact that the Miss Universe Organization is now publicly refuting.
In their statement, JKN announced that they will be “pursuing all legal options with regards to this infringement” and are “doing everything we can to shut this down publicly, so that our community is not victims of this fraud.”
Current Miss Universe Philippines Michelle Dee, who will be representing the country at the global pageant in El Salvador on November 18, was present during both the September 7 press event and PBW conference. However, her participation in both was primarily in support of her NFTs for Autism advocacy, through her organization, the Global Spectrum Initiative.
Shortly after JKN’s official post, leading NFT artist, crypto author, and entrepreneur Luis Buenaventura shared his views on the matter. “I’m gonna give them the benefit of the doubt here and assume that ‘Miss Universe’ is too high-profile a brand to be screwing around with,” he tweeted.
“Like, if it was a scam then they would’ve started selling tokens on the spot at [PBW] because they’d never have gotten away with it for more than a day or two,” he continued. “So it’s more likely some kind of terrible miscommunication between the PH and global groups. At the end of the day, I don’t think the world needs a Miss U crypto anyway … and certainly not one who tries to benchmark itself against a volatile memecoin like $SHIB.”
The organizers of PBW responded yesterday through the conference’s official channels, confirming that they are now in contact with relevant parties and assuring the community that they will be sharing updates on the matter soon.
“Our primary goal is to provide an inclusive platform for the blockchain and cryptocurrency communities to exchange ideas and foster the growth of Web3,” the official statement read. “Thank you for your continued support in making the Web3 ecosystem safe and secure for all.”
PBW saw a number of collaborations launched and formalized between blockchain players and institutional partners to further Web3 adoption in the country. The Blockchain for Government 101 forum, held during the conference, brought in over 200 government officials and employees to educate them on the use cases, opportunities, and risks of blockchain technologies. Similarly, the Philippine Block Awards, bestowed during the second day of the conference, saw three government officials recognized for furthering the usage of blockchain. This all comes as the Philippine government continues to crack down on scams and push for deeper regulation in the Web3 community.
With this emphasis on institutional partnerships as a way to ensure transparency and credibility in the space, it is yet unclear how this latest development around the “Miss Universe Gold Coin” may affect future initiatives coming out of PBW.