A crypto meme token created on the back of viral pygmy hippo Moo Deng has a market cap of over $90 million just two weeks after being launched.
That means that the total amount of tokens in circulation, at their current value, are worth around $91.8 million.
For the uninitiated, Moo Deng is a particularly cute pygmy hippo newborn who lives at a zoo in Thailand. Moo Deng is the Thai name of a dish called “bouncing pork,” and fans of the eternally wet hippo are particularly taken with TikToks of its chaotic attitude and constant, high-spirited screaming.
The hippo went so viral that Khao Kheow Open Zoo, in the center of the country, set up a livestream of its enclosure.
Cryptocurrency pumpers have also gotten in on the act, launching a token through Solana’s Pump.fun platform, which people use to quickly generate meme coins.
Over 12,685 people are currently holding the meme coin, which is tradin at around 9 cents per coin on as of Wednesday afternoon. It is up 30% over the past 24 hour and is four times as valuable as it was last week.
As Decrypt points out, the coin’s Twitter account also functions as a popular fan page for people who can’t get enough of Moo Deng, posting memes and cute moments, engagement bait that can help raise the profile of both the hippo and the coin.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the X account has almost 42,000 followers.
The largest holder of the coin is an account called “skbdito10b.sol,” who’s owns 18 million tokens, or 1.83% of all holdings, currently worth over $1.6 million.
Another account with holdings worth over 1% of the entire stake is moodeng.sol, the same name as the fan page. The @MoodengSOL account didn’t immediately confirm whether they own the wallet. It holds over 11 million tokens worth just over $1 million as of Wednesday afternoon.
According to the MoodengSOL web page, investors in the coin will be tossing some money over to the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in the form of fees. MoodengSOL didn’t immediately respond to questions about how much those fees are worth or if it’s transferred any over to the zoo yet.
Khao Kheow Open Zoo also didn’t immediately respond to questions about whether they’ve been in touch with the Moo Deng team about the donations.
But one thing is for certain, any memeable internet moment has the possibility to be turned into a coin.
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