Under the unstoppable charm offensive of the "Bouncing Pig", this new international Internet celebrity has driven the "Hippo Economy" to blossom across the board. Crypto investors have also started to pan for gold in various ways, even reappearing the zoo market and driving a significant recovery in the MEME economy.
Written by: Nancy, PANews
With its round body, cute appearance, unique name and exaggerated expression, this little dwarf hippopotamus from Thailand, Moo Deng (Bouncing Pig), became a global sensation overnight and quickly became a meme-maker. Under the unstoppable charm of the "Bouncing Pig", this new international Internet celebrity has driven the "hippopotamus economy" to flourish, and crypto investors have also started to pan for gold in various ways, even reappearing the zoo market and driving a significant recovery in the MEME economy.
Recently, a two-month-old pygmy hippopotamus at Khao Kheow Zoo in Chonburi, Thailand, has attracted worldwide attention for its amusing interactions with its keepers. This Cancer hippopotamus is very rebellious, wanting to "eat" the keepers, being scared out of control by water jets, and struggling to take a bath and nearly falling... These expressions with their own memes have also made Moo Deng a popular meme, even appearing in Time Magazine, and Twitter and Walmart have also released meme-related bouncing pigs.
The popular bouncing pigs are also very profitable. According to the Bangkok Post, the bouncing pigs attracted a large number of visitors, bringing in 12 million baht (about 360,000 US dollars) in revenue to the Thai zoo in the first three weeks of September, attracting more than 80,000 visitors. Due to the large number of visitors, the zoo also implemented a limited viewing time measure and opened a 24-hour online live broadcast. Not only that, the zoo is also applying for the copyright and trademark of "Moo Deng Hippo" and selling bouncing pig peripheral products to raise funds to improve the living conditions of the animals.
This hippopotamus fever has also swept the crypto circle, and various MEMEs with the same name are flying everywhere. Among them, Moo Den (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 200 million US dollar mark, making it the seventh largest MEME in Solana by market value.
Under the strong market performance, there are high-yield investors, but there are also many investors who miss out and sell at a loss. According to Lookonchain monitoring, a 5FGcB address spent 9.8 SOL (about $1,331) on September 10 to buy 38.7 million MOODENGs. It has now sold more than 30 million MOODENGs and still holds $1.33 million worth of MOODENGs. According to Arkham monitoring, a trader invested $800 in MOODENG four hours after its launch. The current position is worth more than $5.4 million and has not yet been sold. However, Lookonchain also monitored that a certain address spent 1.5 SOL (about $203.5) to buy 19.4 million MOODENGs and sold them at a price of 7.64 SOL (about $1,039), with a profit of $835 (4 times return). If the address had held on to it until now, the profit would have reached $2.65 million - a return of more than 13,000 times.
Stimulated by MOODENG, some investors began to closely follow the hype of online celebrity animal narratives on platforms such as TikTok and Youtube, including penguins (PESTO), frogs (omochi), capybaras (CAPY), pandas (HUAHUA) and otters (DEGEN), which are being paid attention to by the market. Stimulated by such animal market conditions, on-chain transaction volume has increased significantly, especially Solana.
Taking the data on DEX Screener as an example, in the past 24 hours, the trading volume on Solana has exceeded 960 million US dollars. Among them, the top 10 trading volume contributed about 170 million US dollars, accounting for 17.8% of the overall market. Half of these projects are from animal MEME, and their total trading volume exceeds 130 million US dollars. This also means that animal MEME is the main driving force behind Solana's trading volume.
In the final analysis, the reason why the Internet celebrity animal economy is booming is not only due to the viral traffic effect of popular Internet memes, but also because these animals are becoming a spiritual and cultural symbol and a carrier for young people to vent their emotions. In particular, those animals with strong personalities and emotional resonance are more likely to gain "believers", which is 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 is more worthy of investors' attention.
