⁠Co-founder of #YouTube supports memecoin based on the platform's "first cat"

A cat video recorded 20 years ago by former YouTube CTO Steve Chen is now the basis of a memecoin with a market capitalization of more than $20 million

Steve Chen, co-founder and former CTO of video platform YouTube, has been supporting a memecoin project based on one of the first cat videos uploaded to the website in 2005.

Speaking to Cointelegraph from Taiwan on May 27, Chen, who has an estimated net worth of more than $1 billion, said he had been spending between 80 and 100 hours a week backing the Pajamas memecoin (PAJAMAS). Based on the “first cat video uploaded to YouTube” by Chen in 2005, the project is available on the Solana blockchain.

"This is my cat, Pajamas, playing and dancing to Nick Drake," read the description of the video, uploaded to YouTube on May 22, 2005.

Chen told Cointelegraph that he was not initially involved in memecoin when the project was first launched, but about a hundred users tagged him in X, which led him to purchase the token. According to the YouTube co-founder, the memecoin project was just one of many he was currently involved in in the tech space, including an AI-based exchange-traded fund and investments in Taiwan-based startups.

Pajamas, the real cat, is no longer with us, as the video was filmed 20 years ago. Kabosu, the basis for the Dogecoin (DOGE) logo and related meme, also passed away on May 24 at the age of 18. Chen said that becoming more involved in the Web3 world through the project led him to discover a "complete lack of trust that everyone has in each other."