With The Challenge: Battle of the Eras season concluded on MTV, Johnny Bananas appears to have found a new side hustle, but not all fans are buying it.
The seven-time MTV champion just finished Season 40, finishing third place amongst the men, as he watched castmate Jordan Wiseley capture another title.
Just recently, Bananas claimed that the unique twist, known as the Karma Vote, was added to the season to prevent him from achieving his eighth win.
He called it the “Envy Vote” and accused other castmates of being jealous and giving him lower scores to prevent him from finishing in first place.
In the past several years, he has expanded his reality TV resume by appearing on other shows, including Peacock’s The Traitors and E!’s House of Villains.
However, within the past few days, he teased that he had something big coming to social media, and he is now in full-on promotion mode with fans sounding off.
Taking to his social media accounts, including Instagram, Bananas revealed that he launched a cryptocurrency, “BANANAS.”
The first slide of a carousel post shows a photo of The Challenge star wearing a Bananas tank top and holding a bunch of banded money on each side of his head.
“Official announcement: Make more in one day with $BANANAS than Sarah lost in a season. 🦍🍌🚀 It’s time to get ridiculous. Link in bio 🔥. This is going to the moon! NO RUGS,” he wrote in his caption.
His second slide informs prospective customers about obtaining some of his digital currency. The process involves having a Solana Wallet, which can be downloaded as an app for iOS or Android or used as a unique extension on the Chrome web browser.
From there, customers must buy another cryptocurrency, Solana or SOL, which they will use to buy “$BANANAS” tokens.
The popular reality TV star’s new cryptocurrency is one of several side hustles. He also sells his own branded merchandise, which includes many references to his reality TV moments. There are even new Bananas Angels-themed shirts.
He opened his own Rumble Boxing gym over a year ago in Boca Raton, Florida. Castmates continue to visit Rumble Boxing East Boca to support Bananas and help promote his gym.
Cryptocurrency tends to be a risky and volatile investment. Some digital tokens have risen significantly and then tanked in value, with people losing their money quickly.
Bananas’ caption mentions “NO RUGS,” which refers to other high-profile cryptocurrencies that individuals released and promoted to a large audience.
After many individuals bought that crypto, it rose significantly, and some promoters allegedly sold all of their coins to profit. Soon after, others holding the coin lost much of their money as the crypto’s value plummeted.
In the comment section for his Instagram post, commenters called out Bananas, suggesting he might be doing something similar.
“Here comes the lawsuit,” one commenter wrote, while another asked, “Why are you scamming your fans.”
Another individual told Bananas, “You’re the GOAT, but don’t go out like this bro!”
“it’s not to late to pretend this never happened,” an Instagram comment read.
“Bruh… don’t do this. DO NOT DO THIS….,” a commenter told The Challenge star.
Another commenter noted how they hoped Bananas was “better than this” and is “trolling” with his recent social media posts.
Controversies and lawsuits have emerged involving cryptocurrencies that launched and allegedly scammed people out of money.
In February 2022, a notable class-action lawsuit was filed against cryptocurrency SafeMoon, alleging it was a “pump and dump scheme.” Among those named defendants in the lawsuit were celebrities including Jake Paul, Nick Carter, and rappers Soulja Boy and Lil Yachty.
According to Bloomberg, SafeMoon filed for bankruptcy in November 2023. Earlier that month, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged the crypto company and its executive team for fraud and unregistered offering of crypto securities.
More recently, Haliey Welch, known for her viral Hawk Tuah remarks, launched her coin last year. Like Bananas’ coin, Welch’s coin launched on the Solana blockchain. The “Hawk” coin quickly reached a $490 million market cap. However, it plummeted within hours, losing 95 percent of its value.
Some individuals accused Welch and her team of selling off their holdings to profit from others, suggesting it was a “pump and dump” or “rug pull.” According to a BBC report, Welch denied the allegations that she and her team sold any of their tokens.
