Author: Nancy, PANews
With its chubby body, ugly appearance, unique name and exaggerated expression, this little dwarf hippopotamus Moo Deng (Bouncing Pig) from Thailand became famous all over the world overnight and quickly became a meme-making machine. Under the unstoppable charm offensive of "Bounce Pig", this new international Internet celebrity has led to the full bloom of the "Hippo Economy". Crypto investors have also started fancy gold rushes, even reappearing the zoo market, and promoting a significant recovery of the MEME economy.
Recently, a two-month-old pygmy hippopotamus at Khao Kheow, a zoo in Chonburi, Thailand, attracted world attention due to its funny interactions with its keepers. This little Cancer hippopotamus is very "rebellious". He wants to "eat" the keeper every day, is frightened by the water jet and loses control, struggles in the bath and almost falls... These meme-like expressions have also made Moo Deng a meme that everyone is trying to create. There was even an appearance in Time Magazine and Bouncing Pig-related memes posted on Twitter and Walmart, among others.
The popular Bouncing Pig also attracts a lot of money. According to the Bangkok Post, the bouncing pig attracted a large number of visitors, bringing 12 million baht (approximately US$360,000) to the Thai zoo in the first three weeks of September, attracting more than 80,000 visitors. Due to the excessive number of visitors, the zoo has also implemented time-limited viewing measures and also opened a 24-hour online live broadcast. Not only that, the zoo is also applying for the copyright and trademark of the "Moo Deng Hippopotamus" and is selling Bouncing Pig peripheral products to raise funds to improve the living conditions of the animals.
This hippopotamus fever has also swept through the crypto community, and various MEMEs with the same name are flying everywhere. Among them, MoDen (MOODENG) on Solana is undoubtedly the most popular, and the token has become the MEME coin with the largest market value in the Pump.fun ecosystem.
According to DEX Screener data, MOODENG has increased by more than 28,000 times in more than half a month since its creation, and its current market value has exceeded the US$200 million mark, making it the seventh largest MEME in Solana's market value.
Under the strong market performance, there are high-yield investors, and there are also many short-selling and short-selling investors. According to Lookonchain monitoring, a certain address starting with 5FGcB spent 9.8 SOL (approximately US$1,331) to purchase 38.7 million MOODENG on September 10. It has sold more than 30 million MOODENG and still holds US$1.33 million worth of MOODENG; according to Arkham According to monitoring, a trader invested US$800 in purchasing MOODENG four hours after its launch. The current position is worth over US$5.4 million and has not yet been sold. However, Lookonchain also monitored that a certain address spent 1.5 SOL (approximately $203.5) to purchase 19.4 million MOODENG and then sold it for 7.64 SOL (approximately $1,039), with a profit of $835 (4 times return). Had the address held on until now, the profit would have been $2.65 million – a return of over 13,000x.
Stimulated by MOODENG, some investors began to pay close attention to the celebrity animal narrative hype on platforms such as TikTok and Youtube, including penguins (PESTO), frogs (omochi), capybaras (CAPY), pandas (HUAHUA) and otters (DEGEN) etc. are being paid attention to by the market. Stimulated by this kind of animal market, the transaction volume on the chain has increased significantly, especially Solana.
Taking data on DEX Screener as an example, Solana’s trading volume reached over $960 million in the past 24 hours. Among them, the top 10 in terms of transaction volume contributed approximately US$170 million, accounting for 17.8% of the overall market. Half of these projects are from animal MEME, and their combined trading volume exceeds $130 million. This also means that animal MEME is the main driver of Solana’s transaction volume.
In the final analysis, the reason behind the prosperity of the Internet celebrity animal economy is not only the viral traffic effect of popular Internet memes, but also that these animals are becoming a spiritual and cultural symbol and a carrier for young people to express their emotions, especially those with great personality. And animals with emotional resonance are more likely to gain "believers", which is also an important reason why consumers are willing to pay for animal IPs such as Moo Deng. However, this kind of popular culture is always changing with each passing day, and the logic behind its rise deserves more attention from investors.
"Internet celebrity hippopotamus meme coin MOODENG soared ten thousand times, driving the market to reproduce the zoo market" This article was first published on "Blocker".
