WNBA sex toy incidents may be linked to cryptocurrency group’s money scheme

Late in the first half of a Los Angeles Sparks-Indiana Fever game on Tuesday night, a neon green sex toy thrown from the stands landed on the floor of Crypto.com Arena, at the feet of Indiana guard Sophie Cunningham.

Simultaneously, a group of people during an audio livestream on X were reveling in the moment and celebrating its potential to help boost the value of a memecoin, a cryptocurrency deriving from an internet meme but traded through very real markets online. The coin was created on July 28, the day before the first occurrence of a sex toy being thrown on a WNBA court, and as of Thursday, its worth had nearly tripled in a week.

“Someone is tweeting that there’s one at the Sparks game,” one person said on the stream.

“That is literally the best case scenario that we could possibly imagine,” another replied, because the sex toy had fallen near Cunningham, who had earlier in the week posted a plea for spectators not to throw the objects onto the court, which was met with numerous memes involving the phallic object.

The incident in Los Angeles — as well as others that occurred that evening — appears to be part of a coordinated effort, born out of the murky and often mysterious corners of internet culture, social media and opportunistic plays in the cryptocurrency markets.

Like many things on the internet, users often interact without revealing their identities, especially in public settings. Memecoins, a novelty digital asset originating from a meme, are part of an odd intersection of jokes that turn into something users try to spin into an asset with more value, like Dogecoin or Shiba Inu coin.

One user speaking on a stream called the attention created by the incidents and resulting chatter “next level.”

“This is empowering to every f—ing crypto community to start thinking outside the box. Get creative and f—ing do something that makes people actually laugh. Memecoins should make you laugh,” he said, adding, “The whole mission with this was focus on making an impact in crypto culture.”

It appears the WNBA and its athletes are central to the joke, regardless of the founders’ intentions, and no matter how players have reacted. The incidents have sparked opportunities for detractors to mock the league and women’s sports more generally.

“The sexualization of women is what’s used to hold women down, and this is no different,” Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said. “These people that are doing this should be held accountable. We’re not the butt of the joke, they’re the problem.”

On Thursday, Donald Trump Jr. shared a meme that pictured his father, President Donald J. Trump, throwing a sex toy off the roof of the White House onto a court of women’s basketball players. “Posted without further comment,” the younger Trump said, adding three crying laughing emojis.

Beginning on July 29, three neon green sex toys have been thrown onto WNBA courts. At Tuesday night’s New York Liberty game, an X video shows a similar object confiscated in the stands. Other social media users claimed there was an attempt to throw one at the Phoenix Mercury game, which was being played at the same time of the Sparks’ contest.

During Tuesday’s livestream, there was also talk of someone throwing another toy at the Seattle Storm’s Climate Pledge Arena during Tuesday’s game against the Minnesota Lynx, though no incident occurred, a Storm spokesperson confirmed to The Athletic.

It appears as if the crypto memecoin community, Green Dildo Coin, is behind the latest wave of WNBA incidents. On Tuesday night’s livestream, members acknowledged the communication they have with those throwing the sex toys at WNBA arenas.

“I just got confirmation L.A. is out of the building,” one member of the stream said around seven minutes after the sex toy landed on the court, indicating the person who threw it fled without being apprehended.

“There are community members out there putting their f—ing lives on the line, so the least you can do is retweet,” the same member said as the act was beginning to go viral on social media.

“The potential tosser (in Seattle), if you will, lost his phone in Lake Washington, so I had to reach out to a friend who was able to get me in contact, and he’s all set now,” another member of the stream said of the potential incident at Tuesday’s Storm game.

A league source told The Athletic that the WNBA is aware of the Green Dildo Coin’s recent X stream.

Last week, a 23-year-old Georgia man was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, public indecency/indecent exposure and criminal trespass, according to Clayton County’s court system, days after the first of these incidents.

Messages shared on the stream and in the community’s Telegram chat suggest that those directly involved in the Green Dildo Coin community were not aware of Delbert Carver before his arrest, although members of the community were alerted to watch the Atlanta Dream-Golden State Valkyries game on July 29.

“Obviously, that was not anybody in the community,” said one member on Tuesday’s stream. “I didn’t want to give it any credit, but I was kind of thinking we could go and pay that guy’s bail, and just say, like you know what, we support green dildo throwers.”

The WNBA said in a statement Saturday that anyone throwing an object onto the court would be immediately ejected, is subject to a one-year ban and could face arrest and prosecution by local authorities.

“The safety and well-being of everyone in our arenas is a top priority for our league. Objects of any kind thrown onto the court or in the seating area can pose a safety risk for players, game officials, and fans,” the league said.

An 18-year-old man, Kaden Lopez, was arrested while at Tuesday’s Mercury game after police said he threw a sex toy toward the seats in front of him, hitting a man and his 9-year-old niece. Sergeant Phil Krynsky, a spokesperson for the Phoenix Police Department, confirmed Lopez’s arrest in a statement to The Athletic.

The identities of those who originated Green Dildo Coin are unclear, though the domain of the memecoin’s website was registered on July 19, according to Who.Is, an internet domain lookup service. Memecoins, according to Christian Grewell, an expert on blockchain and cryptocurrency technology at New York University, “cost almost nothing to make, essentially they’re free, but they can generate millions in profits within days.”

The community also has an online storefront, which sells apparel related to the sex toy and memecoin, which was registered on July 7, close to two weeks before the first sex toy was thrown onto a WNBA court.

Green Dildo Coin launched its account on X on July 28, with its apparent founder, Lt. Daldo Raine, voicing a nearly 15-minute speech — spoofing the opening speech of Brad Pitt’s character, Lt. Aldo Raine, in Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglorious Bastards” — in which he explains the purpose of the memecoin. The WNBA is not explicitly mentioned in opening comments, though Raine said that “evidence of our cruelty” would be found in the “giant green, aggressive, and erect candles we leave behind.”

In multiple livestreams listened to by The Athletic, members routinely voiced crude humor about the WNBA. Jokes were made about WNBA viewership, and memes circulated in the community’s telegram often juxtaposed the sex toy into the hands of WNBA players.

“The attention we created for a ($40) dildo and ($140) seats is next level,” said one of the aforementioned members of the community on the stream. “This is empowering to every f—ing crypto community to start thinking outside the box. Get creative and do something that makes people actually laugh. Memecoins should make you laugh. Memes should make you laugh.

“This is a movement to me to empower the average f—ing teacher. I don’t care if you have 100,000 followers or 10 followers. Your f—ing posts matter, they have the ability to go viral, as long as they’re actually f—ing funny.”

The incidents appeared to change the trading prices of $DILDO. According to the coingecko cryptocurrency website, it has a trading volume of more than $1.5 million between Wednesday and Thursday afternoon. Polymarket, a cryptocurrency-based prediction model, also took bets on whether disruptions would occur. The site reported that it took in more than $180,000 in volume on whether a sex toy would be thrown at a game by Aug. 10. Users of the platform can also trade on the specific day another sex toy will be thrown on.

“The dildo-throwing incidents were essentially an excuse for bad actors to hijack existing negativity and convert it into attention,” Grewell wrote in an email to The Athletic.

Raine, the spokesperson of the group, told USA Today that the disruption using sex toys at WNBA games is likely done, but that the pranks wouldn’t stop. A photo circulated online, and in the community’s Telegram chat, of a spectator holding a green sex toy at Wednesday night’s Miami Marlins game.

“If we’re too disruptive for too long, people will get pissed off,” a member said Tuesday on stream. “The bigger events, we gotta find creative ways to like trick the cameras onto us and then, f—ing bingo.”

WNBA players and coaches have voiced their displeasure with the incidents and asked for consideration of player safety.

After the second incident, which occurred in Chicago last Friday, Sky center Elizabeth Williams said it was “super disrespectful” and “really immature.”

“It’s ridiculous, it’s dumb, it’s stupid,” Sparks coach Lynne Roberts said.

The Athletic’s Matt Moret contributed to this report.

(Photo of Sophie Cunningham: Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)