The cryptocurrency business could be very, very bizarre.
What would you anticipate from an business based by cypherpunks and embraced in its early days by privateness and cryptology idealists, software program geeks, anarcho-capitalists and disenchanted Ron Paul voters?
As crypto grew and creating new cryptocurrencies turned ever simpler throughout the preliminary coin providing (ICO) period, no concept was too silly or left-field to ignore. And that’s earlier than making a memecoin might be achieved at the contact of a button, leading to tens of millions of cash that don’t even have an concept.
It will be not possible to make an exhaustive checklist of all the bizarre crypto initiatives on the market, however listed below are a number of favorites:
1. Crypto cavity, Dentacoin
Based in 2017, the Dentacoin Basis and its eponymous cryptocurrency aimed to streamline the trendy dental business. The Ethereum-based Dentacoin (DCN) token was supposed to change into a “utility token, used for rewards, funds, and change inside and past the dental business,” in accordance to the Netherlands-based venture’s white paper.For practitioners, the token was mentioned to be a method of fee for supplies, tools, and different providers, whereas sufferers might earn it by taking oral well being surveys, offering practitioner critiques and monitoring and sustaining oral well being practices.
The last word aim was to pace up medical funds, which may usually take rather a lot of time and contain rather a lot of pink tape.
Like many tokens with area of interest use instances, the DCN value spiked on launch after which flatlined. As of Aug. 24, the venture’s market capitalization was simply $235,000, failing to meet its lofty ambitions of disrupting the dental business with blockchain.
It’s your decision some novocaine for that.
2. Lovecraftian cult worships Cthulu with crypto
Cthulu, the monster of H.P. Lovecraft’s eldritch horror tales, is an “Previous One” of evil and terrifying energy that the human thoughts can’t comprehend. The aim of the Cthulu (FHTAGN) token appears simply as incomprehensible. Initially showing on on-line boards in 2013, the token appeared to fulfill no different function than to give die-hard crypto and Lovecraft followers one thing to do and ship to one another.
Discussion board customers represented FHTAGN (the ticker itself is a phrase from the unpronounceable and horrific language of the Previous Ones) as half of the faith and mythology surrounding Cthulu, i.e., tokens have been “choices,” holders have been “cultists,” and cash have been mined by “sacrifice.”
In accordance to the few websites that observe it, Cthulu has no measurable market capitalization and a valuation of $0.000032 per token.
Different Cthulu-related tokens have appeared. The a lot cuter Cute Cthulu (CTHULU) coin is a Solana-based venture that goals to elevate consciousness and help efforts on sea life and ecology.
In June, the venture donated $2,000 to The Ocean Cleanup.
“In His Home at R’lyeh useless Cthulhu waits dreaming.”
3. SpankChain, Google this one your self…
If crypto was to be the native cash of the web, then it was solely a matter of time earlier than it crossed paths with pornography and grownup leisure. Based amid the ICO increase, SpankChain loved pretty constructive media protection. It aimed to present a platform for grownup performers to have extra management and company over how they’re compensated for his or her work. The forex was used for funds on Spank.dwell. Performer Allie Superior advised Cointelegraph Journal in 2020 that she made a small fortune by way of the web site’s CryptoTitties app. “I like that I get to maintain 100% of the funds once I use CryptoTitties, somewhat than dropping 20% or extra with fiat fee processors,” she mentioned, including, “It’s actually laborious to get non-crypto folks to use it.”Regardless of promotion from well-known pornographic performers and tens of millions of {dollars} in funding, the venture bumped into some roadblocks in March 2023 and has been largely dormant since. SpankChain had to shut its fee processor, SpankPay, after the latter misplaced its service supplier, Wyre, and failed to discover a new one. Nonetheless, in accordance to the SpankPay X web page, the venture will quickly return and is already letting customers register usernames.
4. Trump cash will not be successful bigly
Whereas not at all times a fan of cryptocurrency, former United States President and 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump has been current in the area — in a method or one other — for a while now.So far, a number of cryptocurrencies are explicitly devoted to Trump and supposedly help his bid to return to the White Home. The primary, which was initially launched as Trump Coin however has since rebranded to FreedomCoin (FREE), launched in 2016, eight years earlier than he got here out in help of the cryptocurrency business.
Donald Trump dances at a serious marketing campaign rally in the Bronx, New York pic.twitter.com/heFOYzRVIX
The most “successful” — the Solana-based TrumpCoin (DJT) — has a market capitalization of $1.43 million. The project has no official affiliation with the Trump campaign, and infamous “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli alluded to helping create the token. Research firm Arkham Intelligence has even offered a $150,000 bounty to anyone who can definitively prove who started the project. Rapid price action and speculation on the token suggest it’s likely just a memecoin, capitalizing on the hype around Trump and the US elections. None of the various Trump coins are officially affiliated with Trump’s campaign or organization. However, his presidential campaign does accept crypto donations. Make crypto weird again.
5. Pot coins drank the bong water
The marijuana industry was no stranger to the ubiquitous bespoke token projects at the ICO boom’s peak. Initially, the weed tokens did actually solve a problem for the US cannabis industry. A weed ban on a federal level meant that any bank with Federal Depositors Insurance (pretty much any bank you’d want to do business with) would not offer services to weed farmers, distributors or dispensaries. Crypto would offer a secure way for all these parties to transact without needing to use a bank or carry around enormous bags of cash. PotCoin (POT), HempCoin (THC) and Cannabis Coin (CANN) all emerged as tokens to cure the industry’s ills. PotCoin even sponsored American basketball star Dennis Rodman, who donned a PotCoin shirt on his notorious trip to Singapore to meet with Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un, which sent the price soaring.
Just arrived to Singapore for the Historical Summit! Looking forward to @POTUS having incredible success that the whole world will benefit by. Thank you @potcoin for supporting my mission! #Peace #Love #HistoricalSummit #Singapore #PresidentTrump #MarshallKimJongUn pic.twitter.com/XNDsyBjLv8
However, as some observers noted, even then, these weed coins failed to deliver significant advantages over more established currencies like Bitcoin. All of them now have negligible market capitalization and next to no onchain activity. Really harshes the vibe, man.
6. At least they were honest: Useless Ethereum Token
The Useless Ethereum Token (UET) is, as its name suggests, useless. UET was initially created as a joke. The project’s website said it had no intended purpose and was not meant to accrue value. As the anonymous creator, UET CEO, told the New York Observer, “I realized that people didn’t really care about the product. They cared about spending a little bit of money, watching a chart and then withdrawing a little bit more money. So why not have an ICO without a product, and do so completely transparently just to see what happened?”According to industry media, the project raised $300,000 in its ICO. It’s unclear what the CEO did with the money, and the token isn’t listed anywhere. Truly useless.
7. Garlicoin values community and… garlic
Another coin initially created as a joke, Garlicoin still boasts an active community. The coin was founded in early 2018 — another ICO boomer — with a general theme of garlic and garlic bread. On the project’s website, anthropomorphic garlic bulbs and garlic bread slices state that the network has fast and cheap transactions and is resistant to specialized mining equipment like application-specific integrated circuits.
The community is still going strong and is highly dedicated to the project’s garlic-centric identity. In the project’s Discord, a member wished fellow Garlicion (GRLC) holder, “Garlic morning! Garlic afternoon! Garlic night!”Another user suggested a way to get more GRLC holders: “Idea: 1. Invite ‘friends’. 2. Everyone bring their favorite garlic bread version/variety. 3. Everyone gets to enjoy garlic bread. Very nice. 4. Give everyone that shows up a paperwallet with some Garlicoin.”The GRLC price has largely flatlined, but in 2021, the token pumped along with the rest of the market.
8. One small step for crypto, Mooncoin
Created in 2013, Mooncoin (MOON) was a nod to the crypto community’s belief that their chosen token will go “to the moon.”It was also popular among astronomy buffs, and its maximum token supply of 384 million was a nod to the 384,000-kilometer distance between Earth and the moon.Space-themed marketing and its astronomical references made the coin an odd favorite among holders. The platform never did pre-mining or an ICO and aimed to provide cheap transactions.According to Coinfi, the project has a market capitalization of over $6 million, with a 24-hour volume of only $141. Failure to launch?
9. The OG memecoin, Dogecoin
In 2013, software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer created Dogecoin (DOGE) as a joke, certain that no one would invest in a coin made purely as a nod to a popular meme… right?
Originally a critique of the highly speculative nature of cryptocurrency, it has become that very thing that its creators wished to criticize.
As of Aug. 20, it has a market capitalization of over $15 billion and an army of fans, including eccentric tech billionaire Elon Musk.
Dogecoin inspired another dog-related coin, Shiba Inu (SHIBA), which was founded in 2020. The pseudonymous “Ryoshi” created the coin as a nod to DOGE, and the idea of a memecoin took flight.
Since then, thousands of strangely named and wildly speculative memecoins have appeared.
Thanks for that, Dogecoin. Stay weird, crypto.
9 of the weirdest crypto projects, from Dentacoin to Cthulu — TradingView News www.tradingview.com 2024-08-25 13:26:57
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