On September 11, a new memecoin named MOODENG was born, inspired by the adorable social media character Moo-Deng, a tiny 2-month-old pygmy hippopotamus living at the Khao Kheow Zoo in Thailand.
The name “Moo-Deng,” meaning “jumping pig” in Thai, gained fame through short videos shared by zoo staff on social media. These clips captured the daily life of the young hippo, whose clumsy yet charming and lovable antics quickly won over the hearts of the online community. As a result, a wave of humorous memes and videos about Moo-Deng was created, spreading like wildfire across the internet.
Riding on the irresistible appeal of this cute hippo, the MOODENG memecoin on Solana rapidly caught the attention of investors on the pump.fun platform. Over the past weekend, MOODENG surged to the top of the trending and volume charts, driving pump.fun’s daily revenue to an impressive $1.1 million on September 28.
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At the height of the MOODENG frenzy, its market capitalization reached an all-time high (ATH) of around $300 million on September 28. Currently, MOODENG is trading at a stable market cap of approximately $220 million.
The MOODENG phenomenon demonstrates how memecoin launch platforms like pump.fun offer users, traders, and speculators the opportunity to multiply their initial investments many times over if they manage to “ride the wave” of highly bullish coins. However, it’s important to note that the memecoin market is a risky game, where prices can skyrocket within days but may also crash to zero in the blink of an eye.
Interestingly, thanks to the MOODENG craze, the Solana (SOL) ecosystem has shown signs of a rapid recovery. The clearest evidence of this resurgence is that transaction fees on Solana have bounced back, reaching $1.5 million per day, after a prolonged period hovering around $400,000 per day.