Following an apparent Twitter joke between Elon Musk and McDonough, a series of memes emerged that many now fear could lead to a major crypto scam. Meme coins are nothing new in the cryptocurrency world, with many such tokens having been issued over the years. While some of these have gained mainstream acceptance within the cryptocurrency community, most others have disappeared as quickly as they appeared.
Memecoins are cryptocurrencies inspired by memes and internet jokes. Dogecoin is the best-known memecoin, which started out as a joke in 2013 before becoming more visible in the mainstream consciousness. Many of its accessories and collectibles are now adopted by Tesla. Another recent meme coin is Meerkat Coin, which was created after a U.S. congressman made a joke last month.
according to Benzinga, a number of meme coins have emerged over the past few days using the name and image of Grimace, the purple-spotted character used by McDonald’s for marketing and advertising. Even as mainstream cryptocurrencies continue to lose value, Ghostcoin’s collective market capitalization reportedly reaches millions of dollars. The saga began earlier this week when Elon Musk Tweet He would eat a McDonald’s Happy Meal on TV if the company accepted Dogecoin as payment.McDonald’s Replied Soon after, he said he would accept Musk’s offer, but only if Tesla accepted the (then fictional) GhostCoin.
Beware of Possible Ghost Face Coin Scam
While the banter between Musk and Mickey D didn’t go any further, the latter’s tongue-in-cheek comment has now sparked a bunch of real-life Grimace coins on both the BSC network and the Ethereum network.According to reports, there are “more than ten” Ghostcoins have emerged, and many of them have risen exponentially, leading some to issue warnings about possible crypto scams. The market cap of some Grimace coins has exceeded $1 million. Grimace, a coin on the Ethereum network, has reportedly increased in price by more than 56,000% since its launch to trade at $0.00396116.
While many in the memecoin community are delighted with the new event, others advise caution due to previous scams related to memecoins. One of the most high-profile cases of meme coins going sour was the so-called “squidcoin,” which disappeared last year after its founder allegedly fled with $2.5 million worth of Binance coins.The coin is inspired by the hit Netflix show squid game It soared more than 300,000% after its launch. However, its entire market capitalization was wiped out in just 15 minutes, leading many in the cryptocurrency community to issue warnings about the current Grimace coin.
Source: Benzinga, Elon Musk/Twitter, McDonald’s/Twitter