Key Takeaways:
PNUT, a viral Solana-based meme coin inspired by “Peanut the Squirrel”, skyrocketed to a market capitalization of nearly $125 million following an X post by Tesla CEO and “dogefather” Elon Musk criticizing New York government officials confiscating and euthanizing the pet squirrel with over 900,000 followers on social media.
PNUT Token Surges to ATH Following Musk’s X Post for ‘Peanut the Squirrel’
The cryptocurrency was launched last week following news that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) had taken away Pnut on October 31 for rabies testing. In a tearful TikTok video, Pnut’s owners Mark and Daniela Longo lamented the authorities for killing their beloved pet.
The Longos mentioned that the agency also took away their pet raccoon, which was also euthanized.
Pnut was confiscated due to public health concerns as squirrels can potentially transmit rabies, even though such cases have been a rare occurrence. New Yorkers are required to obtain a special permit if they want to own a wild animal. The internet sensation was then put to death, which caused significant public backlash, especially on social media.
Musk took to X and stated that the government should not be allowed to barge into someone’s house and kill their pet. He questioned why the DEC officials killed Pnut instead of simply releasing him into the wild.
The billionaire also weighed in on the controversy by quoting Obi-Wan Kenobi, a famous character from the Star Wars franchise. He made another post with the quote “If you strike me down, I will become more powerful than you could possibly imagine”, accompanied by an AI-generated picture of a squirrel dressed like a Jedi master.
Crypto Whale Returns $1.7M Profit from $800K Investment in PNUT
Capitalizing on the opportunity, some memecoins aficionados decided to bet on the most viral recent story by investing in the PNUT coin. With the extensive media coverage and Elon Musk’s post, the market cap of the freshly debuted memecoin rose to a new all-time high of $125 million.
As per data provided by crypto analytics and tracking platform Lookonchain, a certain whale spent as much as $831,000 to purchase 8.99 million PNUT tokens, which returned a profit of $1.7 million to the trader. However, one impatient trader missed their opportunity to earn $1.6 million after selling 19.1 million PNUT at a $1,099 loss.
Around the same time, whales also purchased First Convicted RACCON (FRED), another memecoin inspired by the Longos’ pet raccoon Fred.
The massive buying pressure led to the Peanut the Squirrel (PNUT) token’s price hitting a peak of $0.14. The viral meme coin’s single-day trading volume surpassed $300 million at some point. However, PNUT’s market cap and its price dropped significantly due to the massive profit-taking by early buyers of the meme coin.
Analysts speculate that should PNUT’s price rebound, then it could surpass the market capitalization of Moo Deng (MOODENG), another popular animal-themed meme coin with a market cap of about $150 million.
At the time of writing, PNUT is trading at $0.05547 – down 27.4% over the last 24 hours, with a market cap of $48.98 million. Meanwhile, FRED is changing hands at $0.002442, losing over 80% of its value from the previous day.
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