Is it really as easy as they say?—I had the perfect headline in mind: “How I Became a Crypto Millionaire Overnight!” A tongue-in-cheek take on how anyone can create their own cryptocurrency these days thanks to no-code tools and a bit of online magic.
The reality turned out to be a little more… stubborn.
It All Started with a Coin and a Call
It began with Dr James Mulli. Calm, kind, and endlessly patient, we first met back in 2018 when he helped students at Luxembourg’s International School create a student token called ISLcoin. Seven years later, I got in touch again to see how things had progressed. These days, he’s the academic dean and president of the European Business Institute of Luxembourg.
As ever, he was passionate about demystifying crypto—not just the buzzwords, but its potential uses.
“In my courses, it’s mandatory, everyone has to create a coin. You’re all going to be millionaires. Of course it’ll be worthless!”
We both laughed. Then he added, more seriously:
“I can give you links if you like.”
Enter JessCoin
The link took me to Bitbond, a platform that lets you mint your own personalised ERC20 token on Ethereum. JessCoin had a nice ring to it. This could be fun.
To create my own coin, I needed a wallet. Metamask was not enabled so I opted for Coinbase. Setting up an account felt familiar enough—name, ID, upload a document to prove my address. That’s where I hit the first wall. Our household bills are in my husband’s name, so I uploaded a credit card statement. Rejected. I tried again. Still no joy. The system told me to wait 24 hours before trying once more.
I did. Still nothing. I tried a residence certificate—an official document issued by the Luxembourg state. Rejected again.
Eventually, I took a break. I had other articles to work on. A few weeks later, I sat down with my husband to give it one last go (sometimes having an “alpha male” in the room makes platforms behave better). We tried to flag it with Coinbase’s customer service. We got caught in a loop of circular FAQs and an unhelpful chatbot that may as well have been made of sponge. No option to speak to a real person.
By this point, my original credit card statement had expired. So I shelved the project—and went back to research.
Meanwhile, Over in MemeCoin Land…
That’s when I stumbled on the story of a teenager in the US who’d put $350 into a memecoin called Gen Z Quant—a joke coin with no real utility beyond generating hype. He livestreamed its launch on Pump.fun, and people started piling in. The price surged. He cashed out with $30,000 and, during the livestream, flipped the bird at his audience.
It’s what’s known as a “soft rug pull”. Not illegal, but widely frowned upon in crypto circles.
Then he did it again. Twice. He created two more coins—im sorry and my dog lucy—and raised another $50,000 in one evening. Some investors were furious and started doxxing him. Others, bizarrely, decided to take revenge on his behalf by buying up Gen Z Quant again and pumping the value to $72 million—just to prove a point.
After reading this, all I could think was: How was it that easy for him?
One Last Try
I gave Coinbase another go. I logged in, uploaded a fresh bank statement… and suddenly I was in.
I messaged my husband to share the victory. His reply came back instantly:
“Did you find a crypto scammer to help you?”
No Coin, No Campaign
Technically, I was now ready to mint JessCoin. But I didn’t.
After the slog of just joining the platform, I realised I wasn’t ready for whatever came next. Even if I did create a coin, I’d need people to buy it—and for that, I’d need an actual campaign. A following. Hype. A reason for anyone to care. I didn’t have the time (or energy) to orchestrate a full-blown FOMO moment for JessCoin.
I looked back at my notes from the call with Dr Mulli.
“It has to have a value and a utility and once it has those two qualities it will gain traction and acceptance.”
He was right. A random coin without purpose is just another piece of digital fluff.
“It has to have a value and a utility and once it has those two qualities it will gain traction and acceptance.”
— Dr James Mulli, Founder, Program Director and Academic Dean of the European Business Institute (EBU)
The Small Print
In case you’re wondering—yes, you’re legally allowed to create your own cryptocurrency in Luxembourg. But there are rules, especially under the European Union’s new Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR), which comes fully into force in 2025.
Here’s the basic breakdown:
- Asset-Referenced Tokens (ARTs): Pegged to a basket of assets
- E-Money Tokens (EMTs): Pegged to a single currency
- Other Crypto-Assets: Everything else (including your typical memecoins)
Depending on what you create, you might need to:
- Publish a White Paper explaining your token’s function and risks
- Register as a Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP)
- Meet Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorist Financing (CFT) requirements
Break the rules, and you could face fines of up to €15 million—or even a prison sentence. So far, Luxembourg hasn’t penalised anyone for minting a dodgy token. But I had no intention of being the first.
“I think if you did a survey you’d find the same people who are buying cryptocurrencies are dabbling with making it as well,” Dr Mulli had told me.
Good luck to them, I thought.
This article was published in Silicon Luxembourg magazine.
