Memecoins as soon as once more seized on a viral information second, with Dolly Parton changing into their newest goal. After information broke Tuesday that the beloved nation singer had died, customers rushed to well-liked memecoin platforms to launch tokens, identified for being pushed by on-line traits and hype somewhat than underlying worth, in her title. What adopted was very un-Dolly-like conduct on the a part of the coin issuers. They pulled a basic “rug pull”: After selling the tokens till they attracted sufficient patrons, insiders offered off their holdings close to the height, sending their costs tumbling.
A lot of the cash used some variation of Parton’s title, together with “Dolly,” “DollyParton,” and “RIP Dolly Parton.” They launched both on Pump.enjoyable, the favored Solana memecoin platform, or on Robinhood Chain, a newer blockchain community. “Dolly” was among the many finest performers, reaching a market capitalization of practically $480,000 inside the first few hours of its launch earlier than plummeting under $180,000.
The latest token launches comply with a acquainted sample wherein memecoin creators seize on the deaths of high-profile figures. Comparable campaigns emerged after the deaths of former One Course member Liam Payne, conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, and Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne.
In addition they resurfaced a development that turned one in every of crypto’s defining narratives in 2025. That’s when speculative capital poured into these internet-driven tokens, particularly on Solana. Platforms like Pump.enjoyable made it cheap and easy for nearly anybody to create a token, remodeling memecoin buying and selling into a high-speed consideration market the place traders sought excessive short-term returns. The overwhelming majority of such launches obtain little financial worth and virtually all of them collapse to close zero.
Public skepticism of memecoins elevated as high-profile figures started releasing their very own memecoins. Two days earlier than taking workplace in January 2025, President Donald Trump launched the TRUMP token, which briefly reached a market capitalization of roughly $8.7 billion earlier than shedding greater than 90% of its worth, in line with the crypto analytics supplier CoinGecko.
First Girl Melania Trump followed with the MELANIA token two days later, reaching a excessive of virtually $9. It now trades at 11 cents.
In February 2025, Argentine President Javier Milei publicly endorsed the LIBRA memecoin, which surged in worth earlier than collapsing inside hours. A federal choose subsequently opened an investigation into fraud allegations, although Milei has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
Regardless of memecoins’ troubled popularity, the sector stays a focus for components of the crypto trade. In July, Robinhood launched Robinhood Chain as a community aimed toward tokenized shares and different real-world belongings, however memecoins rapidly turned amongst its most actively traded belongings. Inside days, Cash Cat, a token named after an early attainable title for the brokerage, reached a market capitalization of roughly $150 million, in line with CoinGecko.
