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 typically profane) endorsements, nevertheless, got here from hackers who had taken over the account, the singer-rapper stated shortly thereafter by way of 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 based mostly on a meme or a parody of 1 — don’t have any intrinsic worth, so their value relies upon totally on what individuals are prepared to pay for them in the meanwhile. 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 at the moment, 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 not too long ago launched Mom coin had a market capitalization of greater than $200 million on June 8. By Tuesday, Mom’s worth had dropped about 85% from its June peak.
Past the volatility of the market, meme cash based mostly on celebrities with giant 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’ aim is to influence sufficient folks to leap on the coin’s bandwagon to lift its worth, at which level buyers may promote their holdings at a revenue — a minimum of till the market reacts and the worth drops once more. “Purchase $DOJA or else,” learn one put up 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 induced the coin’s promoting worth to skyrocket, in keeping with GeckoTerminal.com. Inside an hour and a half, nevertheless, the good points 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.