​Kim K hit with $1.26M fine for shilling crypto tokens

Remember how a bunch of influencers got in trouble for promoting Fyre Festival, without first disclosing they were paid to do so?

This is kind of like the crypto version of that.

Kim Kardashian just got hit with a $1.26M fine from the SEC, for illegally promoting the 'EthereumMax' (EMAX) token.

(Which has no relation to the real Ethereum, btw).

Shilling something that looks and feels like a scam token ain't a good look...but it's not necessarily illegal.

Here's what took it from 'oooft, bad look,' to 'oooft, illegal.'

Ol' Kimmy didn't tell her followers that she was being paid $250K to post about the token.

And the law requires folks to disclose to the public when and how much they are paid to promote certain investments.

Separate to the SEC case, Kim and a handful of other celebrities are also being sued by EMAX investors, who allege the whole thing was a pump and dump scheme.

It's subtle, but see if you can pick where the alleged pump, and alleged dump, might have taken place:

Here's what we don't understand:

In what world is a promotion like this worth it for someone like Kim? The potential for heavy brand damage seems staggering.

...sure, she most probably made a good chunk of change from selling EMAX at its peak - but she's worth $1.8B.

What amount of money could convince her to put her name in jeopardy like that?

(Seriously, we're asking).