Memecoins like Fartcoin are riding Trump's victory to huge valuations. Experts say it may have only begun.
Yes, it’s called Fartcoin.
Yes, it’s called Fartcoin. Yes, it is totally useless.
And yes, it has nevertheless grown in value over the past week to a market capitalization of more than $800 million — about equal to those of Office Depot, Guess jeanswear, and the parent company of Steak N’ Shake.
In the day after this article published, Fartcoin’s value seesawed. Starting at about $620 million (7 a.m. Sunday), it rose to a peak of $889 million before settling back $836 million at 9:35 p.m. ET Monday.
The carnival-casino era of cryptocurrencies has come back with a vengeance, riding a broader wave of investment in bitcoin that was itself spurred by the election of Donald Trump. It’s minting millionaires while potentially harming others — yet everyone, even the losers, seem to be in on the joke.
The wave of “memecoiners” is a mix of longtime bitcoin holders and people simply desperate to change their fortunes in an era of sky-priced homes and equities, according to Toe Bautista, research analyst for GSR, a decentralized finance group. While many memecoin traders, flush from gains thanks to bitcoin’s 130% increase this year — 50% of which has come since Trump’s election last month — are simply “moving down the risk curve” into areas of pure speculation, Bautista said. Others see the potential of making 10 times their money overnight.
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