A series of meme coins that many now worry could lead to major crypto scams have emerged following an apparent Twitter joke between Elon Musk and MacDonald’s. Meme coins are nothing new in the cryptocurrency world, and many such tokens have been issued over the years. While some of these have gone on to gain mainstream acceptance within the crypto community, most others have disappeared as quickly as they arrived.
Meme coins are cryptocurrencies inspired by memes and internet jokes. Starting as a joke back in 2013 that’s since become more evident in mainstream awareness, the most well-known meme coin has to be Dogecoin. It is now accepted by Tesla for many of its accessories and collectibles. Another such meme coin of much more recent vintage is Mongoose coin, created after a U.S. lawmaker joked about it last month.
According to Benzinga, a number of meme coins have sprung up in the past couple of days using the name and image of Grimace, the purple blob character used by McDonald’s for marketing and advertising. Even as the mainstream cryptocurrencies continue to shed their value, the Grimace coins reportedly attracted a collective market-cap in the millions. The saga started earlier this week when Elon Musk tweeted that he would eat a MacDonald’s happy meal on TV if the company accepts Dogecoin as payment. MacDonald’s replied soon after, saying it will take Musk up on the offer, but only if Tesla accepts (the then-fictional) Grimace coin.
Beware Of Possible Grimace Coin Scams
While the banter between Musk and Mickey D’s didn’t go much further, the latter’s tongue-in-cheek comment has now given rise to a bunch of Grimace coins in reality, both on the BSC network and the Ethereum network. According to the report, there are “over a dozen” grimace coins already, and many of them are up exponentially, leading some to issue warnings about possible crypto scams. Some of the Grimace coins have already garnered market caps in excess of one million dollars. One of the Grimace coins on the Ethereum network was reportedly up more than 56,000 percent since its launch at $0.00396116.
While many in the meme coin community are having a blast at the new turn of events, others are advising caution because of previous meme coin-related scams. One of the most notable cases of a meme coin turning sour was the so-called Squid Coin, which wiped out last year after its founders allegedly ran away with $2.5 million worth of Binance coin tokens. The coin was inspired by the hit Netflix show Squid Game and had skyrocketed over 300,000 percent following its launch. However, its entire market cap was wiped out in just 15 minutes, leading to the current Grimace coin warnings from many within the cryptocurreny community.
Source: Benzinga, Elon Musk/Twitter, MacDonald’s/Twitter