Featured Image Credit: Matt Jelonek / OZAN KOSE/Contributor / Getty
Cryptocurrencies have seen a major surge in recent weeks, but strangely it is the meme coin 'Moodeng', named after the viral pygmy hippopotamus that has seen some of the biggest boosts.
All the news has been on Bitcoin in recent weeks, as the number one cryptocurrency in the world has seen a 141% year-on-year increase as it's price-per-coin now surges beyond $100,000.
This is largely due to the US election victory of Donald Trump, who alongside Elon Musk has placed an emphasis on bringing crypto into the economy, with the latter claiming that it can save American from 'unsustainable' bankruptcy.
It's not just Bitcoin that has seen a rise though, as various 'meme coins' - otherwise known seen as partial jokes and often based on aspects of popular culture - have also been boosted by recent trends.
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While the biggest of these meme coins remains Dogecoin, which has been helped by the introduction of Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, or 'DOGE' for short, one other animal-themed crypto has had a healthy rise, making some keen investors very rich.
Based on the real life pygmy hippopotamus Moo Deng who became mega viral in September 2024, the crypto coin 'MOODENG' has seen one particular individual take their stock from $800 to $11,900,000 - that's an increase of 1,487,400%.
As reported by Decrypt, a Solana wallet ending in 'Db3P' owner by an anonymous trader initially purchased 6 SOL (or 30.2 million coins) worth of MOODENG on September 10 - just four hours after the coin launched - for what was the equivalent of around $800 at the time.
That is currently worth just over $11.9 million following a dramatic increase in value in early December, showing truly how much you can make if you get lucky with a particular meme coin.
The anonymous buyer still hasn't cashed out, and everything is likely to come crashing down once they do, but it's certainly a coin that other investors are keeping a keen eye on.
Even Ethereum co-found Vitalik Buterin has got on the act, having sold 10 billion MOODENG for the sound of $800,000, of which he has donated a portion to an anti-airborne-disease charity, as per The Independant.
According to CoinGecko, MOODENG still only has a market cap of 'just' $389,172,368 at the time of writing, which pales in comparison to the $108 billion of Bitcoin, or $7.28 billion of something like Dogecoin if you want to directly compare to another meme coin.
Whether the hippo-themed coin will remain a piece of interest or hold anywhere near it's current value is yet to be seen, but if 'Db3P' is anything to go by, you could be the next millionaire by keeping your eyes on the meme market.
