The meme coin named after recording artist Doja Cat surged in worth Monday when posts on her X account urged her 5.6 million followers to purchase it.
The ringing (and generally profane) endorsements, nonetheless, got here from hackers who had taken over the account, the singer-rapper stated shortly thereafter through Instagram. The coin’s worth rapidly sank again to the crypto equal of penny-stock territory, the place it remained Tuesday.
The roughly 1 billion Doja coins had a complete market worth of $13,700 as of Tuesday afternoon, or lower than $.000014 every.
Like different cryptocurrencies, meme cash — digital currencies primarily based on a meme or a parody of 1 — haven’t any intrinsic worth, so their value relies upon fully on what individuals are prepared to pay for them for the time being. The preferred meme coin, Dogecoin, has a market capitalization of more than $15 billion; dozens of meme cash have every drawn tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in funding.
For each meme coin that’s profitable right now, there are hundreds worth nothing or next to nothing. However, various celebrities have sought to capitalize on the phenomenon, together with rapper Iggy Azalea, whose lately launched Mom coin had a market capitalization of greater than $200 million on June 8. By Tuesday, Mom’s value had dropped about 85% from its June peak.
Past the volatility of the market, meme cash primarily based on celebrities with massive followings on social media have been the target of numerous hacks just like the one Monday on Doja Cat’s account on X (previously Twitter).
The hackers’ purpose is to influence sufficient individuals to leap on the coin’s bandwagon to boost its worth, at which level buyers might promote their holdings at a revenue — no less than till the market reacts and the worth drops once more. “Purchase $DOJA or else,” learn one publish on Doja Cat’s X account, illustrated with an image of the artist in chain mail brandishing a sword. One other directed an epithet at Azalea, then stated, “and purchase $DOJA.”
The posts, which have been eliminated, coincided with a flurry of Doja transactions — about 15,000 — that brought about the coin’s promoting value to skyrocket, in response to GeckoTerminal.com. Inside an hour and a half, nonetheless, the positive aspects had all however evaporated in a tidal wave of sell-offs.
Doja Cat’s representatives didn’t reply instantly Tuesday to a request for remark.