A macaque monkey named Punch who empathizes with an IKEA stuffed animal has spurred the implementation of a meme coin harking back to Moo Deng’s fame, who was bullied by his fellow housemates at a Japanese zoo.
Punch Token (PUNCH) was launched on February sixth after memes and tales about monkeys began circulating.
Punch was born on the Ichikawa Metropolis Zoo, rejected by his mom within the intense warmth, and raised by zoo workers. He was reintroduced to the monkey group, however has struggled to be accepted ever since.
This little man is chased and harassed by different monkeys, however what catches everybody’s consideration is the consolation he finds in an IKEA stuffed monkey.
This proliferation elevated PUNCH’s buying and selling quantity to $46 million and pushed the token worth up 12,777% within the week to $0.031.
Many Meme Coin merchants have felt for a while that good “runners” don’t exist. That is the kind of token that may appeal to quite a lot of consideration and enhance in worth.
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When the penguin featured in Werner Herzog’s 2007 documentary “The Finish of the World” made headlines earlier this 12 months, penguin-themed tokens attracted $500 million in buying and selling quantity and a market capitalization of $153 million.
One other profitable runner just like Punch was the launch of Mu Den Token in 2024. This token relies on a viral child hippo that was filmed biting its caretaker. The market capitalization of Moo Deng token exceeded $600 million.
Nonetheless, like most meme cash, each tokens are down over 90% from their all-time highs.
PUNCH token exhibits indicators of market manipulation
In style crypto dealer The White Whale has issued a warning about Punch Token, suggesting that it’s exhibiting indicators of “market manipulation” and that the large quantity of liquidity the token has attracted suggests it isn’t natural.
They stated, “The mission and the mission developer are in all probability not concerned in what I am warning you about right here. The mission might or might not be a superb mission, however that is cabal exercise, plain and easy.”
Cryptocurrency merchants aren’t the one ones to leap on the viral monkey’s monetary potential, with customers already providing to purchase up stuffed monkeys from their native IKEA shops and promote them at excessive costs.
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Scalper or not, IKEA recorded a rise in gross sales of stuffed animals because of Punch’s fame.
The zoo itself has seen a surge in guests simply to see Punch the Monkey.
Punch additionally caught the eye of Tron founder and billionaire Justin Solar, who donated $100,000 to the zoo housing Punch via his trade HTX.
