What do you get when you combine lower interest rates and a viral baby pygmy hippo?
Moo Deng crypto.
Given the sudden popularity of Moo Deng, the Thai national treasure whose name roughly translates as “bouncy pork,” it was only a matter of time before someone turned her into a digital asset. And given the nature of such memecoins, which have zero underlying value and trade purely on vibes, it’s no surprise Moo Deng Coin has shot up 1,400 per cent since it was created less than three weeks ago.
To be clear: This is an asset about as valuable as Beanie Babies were in the 1990s, though at least then you got to hold a Beanie Baby.
Memecoins, no matter how cute, are not a smart financial play, even if one trader appears to have turned an US$800 buy into US$3.5 million. (It should be noted that crypto traders suspect this anonymous Moo Deng booster is an “insider,” since they bought the coin four hours after its creation, per the crypto news site Decrypt. And once that person sells their stake, the coin becomes as worthless on paper as it is in reality.)
Moo Deng coin is just the latest product of a niche online culture that also birthed Dogecoin (created as a joke to dunk on bitcoin) and Shiba Inu coin (a joke to dunk on Dogecoin). Like any fun internet sensation, memecoins tend to have a short lifespan, soaring as their newnesses inspires FOMO in crypto traders and then cratering shortly after when early investors take their profits and bolt for the exit.
Two-month-old baby hippo Moo Deng plays with a zookeeper in the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Chonburi province, Thailand, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
Obviously, Moo Deng’s unbearable cuteness is the driving force behind the new coin, which was up 90 per cent over 24 hours on Friday, trading at about 25 U.S. cents a coin.
But the Fed’s super-sized rate cut last week, and signals of more cuts to come, are also powering a surge in crypto broadly, from the Moo Dengs to the more mainstream bitcoin and ethereum, as looser monetary policy tends to benefit high-risk assets like crypto.
Bitcoin, the most popular crypto token, is up about 14 per cent over the past week.