A little-known cryptocurrency that started as a joke briefly made a trader a millionaire this week, the latest example of the speculative frenzy taking hold in digital assets inspired by internet memes and culture.
The token, called Donotfomoew or MOEW, was created on April 3rd by the developers of the Bitget cryptocurrency wallet. They claimed it was “just for funsies” and wanted to see the “power of memes.” But within an hour of listing on decentralized exchanges, MOEW’s price had spiked so high that one trader’s $13,000 investment was worth over $2 million – a staggering 15,700% gain.
According to blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain, the trader purchased nearly 500 million MOEW tokens for just 4 Ether (around $13,000) 10 minutes after the coin launched. An hour later, they sold 111 million of those tokens for $328,000 worth of Ether. Their remaining 388 million MOEW were valued at $1.76 million at that point.
The dizzying rise seemed to catch even MOEW’s creators off-guard. “Do not buy, do not fomo,” Bitget warned users, saying 50% of tokens were being permanently locked to provide liquidity, while the other 50% were being airdropped to users, not kept by the developers.
Still, MOEW’s surge to a $31 million market cap in under a day underscores the speculative mania taking hold in the cryptocurrency world, especially around tokens embracing internet memes and culture. Dogecoin, a memecoin featuring a Shiba Inu dog as its mascot, has seen its price increase over 5,000% in the last year. New meme tokens like BODEN on Solana, spoofing President Biden, have quickly amassed nine-figure market caps.
“There’s a lot of surplus investment capital sloshing around the crypto ecosystem looking for the next big thing,” said Palm, a pseudonymous crypto investor. “When you mix that money with the potent combination of memes and FOMO, you get an environment ripe for coins to pump hard and fast.”
Critics worry many investors could get burned chasing after such speculative manias. But the crypto community has embraced meme culture, using it to attract new investors and keep prices rising through viral media attention. Whether the phenomenon is sustainable remains to be seen.
For now, the possibility of outrageous short-term gains like the MOEW millionaire continues to lure investors into even the most bizarre crypto assets. As one Crypto Twitter commentator put it: “The human capacity for being degenerate gamblers is limitless.”
