Dozens of new crypto tokens themed after internet services company CrowdStrike and the popular Microsoft “Blue Screen of Death” (BSoD) error were issued on Ethereum and Solana blockchains amid a reported global internet outage that has impacted several real-world services.
Something super weird happening right now: just been called by several totally different media outlets in the last few minutes, all with Windows machines suddenly BSoD’ing (Blue Screen of Death). Anyone else seen this? Seems to be entering recovery mode: pic.twitter.com/DxdLyA9BLA
— Troy Hunt (@troyhunt) July 19, 2024
Millions of Windows users worldwide are experiencing the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) error, which causes the system to suddenly shut down or restart.
The error has impacted businesses ranging from airlines and railways to stock exchanges and is reportedly related to a Crowdstrike software update that went awry.
No crypto-related company or business has reported errors or outages in their services as of European morning hours Friday.
DEXTools and DEXScreener data shows tokens referring to CrowdStrike, STRIKE, Microsoft, bluescreenofdeath and BSoD were issued and actively traded as punters hope to eke out profits from the short-term attention on these topics.
Some of these tokens have liquidity of upto $50,000 worth of stablecoins, quickly running to market capitalizations of as much as $1 million on paper.
CrowdStrike and Microsoft were seemingly the most trending topics. Solana-based token generator Pump Fun, where users created hundreds of tokens referring to various memes that referred to the companies.
Creating tokens to profit from short-term hype or trending news narratives is a niche behavior of crypto market participants. While most of these tokens eventually lose all value as they’re void of any fundamental backing, they do end up making a profit for their creators and early buyers.