In brief
- Crypto traders bought and sold a handful of Charlie Kirk meme coins after the conservative influencer was assassinated on Wednesday, generating millions.
- The token creators and top five traders collectively profited more than $2 million, prompting meme coin traders to question whether an ethical line had been crossed.
- Some believe profiting off death is too far, while others argue it’s unavoidable in crypto-based free markets.
Meme coin creators and traders profited more than $2 million following the assassination of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk on Wednesday. It has split the meme coin-frenzied segment of the crypto community, with one side calling those gaining from his death “sickening” while others shrug at the long line of morally questionable tokens traders have capitalized on.
In the wake of the fatal shooting of prominent conservative activist Kirk, four meme coins were created and soared to multi-millions, with the largest peaking at a $36 million market cap. The deployers of these tokens netted more than $563,000 in rewards—royalties paid to the creators of the tokens—in less than 24 hours, according to data from Solana meme coin launchpad Pump.fun. The top five traders of each token have realized profits over $1.6 million, according to DEX Screener.
As trading for the tokens accelerated on Wednesday night, social media was set ablaze with people searching for and identifying those profiting from the death of the President Trump ally.
Some even suggested that the token launchpad Pump.fun should add filters that prevent the creation of coins that profit from shootings and violence. Pump.fun does have terms of use, a prohibited use policy, and an active moderation team, but such tokens do not violate any of its guidelines. Pump.fun did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for comment.
Pump.fun appears to have benefited from the frenzy too. PumpSwap, the decentralized exchange where its tokens trade, saw a significant spike in daily volume to $533 million—a three-month high. The platform, though, did not experience a notable increase in the number of tokens launched or revenue generated, according to data available on Dune.
“I think profiting off someone’s death, especially the magnitude of an event like this, is sickening,” Pump.fun livestreamer Jytol told Decrypt. “Personally, I don’t trade memes which involve death, racism, or bullying.”
“Anything is fair game”
A prominent pseudonymous meme coin trader, 0xWinged, called such critiques “virtue signalling,” suggesting the community is now drawing an arbitrary line that hasn’t been well-defined in the past. 0xWinged explained that he is both sad about Kirk’s death and would have traded the tokens—but was “sidelined sadly.”
“If it’s not me, it’s someone else making money. Meme coins are about reach and publicity. Kirk was the most viral event,” 0xWinged told Decrypt. “I think Crypto Twitter, having moderate right political views, saw Charlie not as a random victim but as a martyr for a greater cause. And the tokenizing of this event reduced his real-world achievements to a market cap.”
He added that he doesn’t think those profiting off the tokens have “any ill intent,” explaining that “anything is fair game” when it comes to meme coin trading. He also admitted there’s something “dystopian” about that.
Others think that dystopian feeling crosses a line. Loopify, a pseudonymous game developer and founder of charity CryptoGaza, compared the trend to investing in war stocks, which he believes exists “below the moral line.”
“My opinion: anyone who makes money off coins like that, you’re the problem with crypto,” pseudonymous meme coin trader WombatAF told Decrypt. “Death isn’t funny, memes should be funny, or a joke. Something you can just get over. Not death and crime.”
Crypto degens and profiteering
This is, of course, not the first time that crypto degens have profited from tragic events or ethically questionable spectacles—though the Charlie Kirk coins have sparked notably more outrage among meme coin traders.
Last year, meme coin traders pumped tokens based on unfounded rumors that Joe Biden had died… he hadn’t. This year, degens pumped a token called Swasticoin as they parroted antisemitic and Nazi ideologies. And, over the past seven days, traders profited from meme coins referencing the murder of Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Solana token Justice for Iryna hit a $33.8 million market cap with the top five traders profiting $661,700 on the token. The deployer has earned $190,920 in creator fees, but appears to have donated part of this to a GoFundMe for Zarutska’s family. Equally, a token calling for the death penalty for the alleged killer pumped to $40 million, with the top five traders profiting $506,000 from it.
“There is a 9/11 token out right now [and] no one is mentioning it,” Pump.fun livestream clipper Barton Baste told Decrypt, adding that other meme coins are available that reference the deadly protests in Nepal. “What has happened there recently is extremely tragic,” they pointed out.
0xWinged said crypto’s right-wing base meant the death of Kirk felt more impactful than any previous tragic event that degens profited from—not that meme coin traders are against profiting from death.
An “oscillating barrier of tolerance”
The pseudonymous Scorched Earth Policy, who holds the title of chief of staff at the Milady-run Remilia Corporation, told Decrypt the situation is reflective of the “hive mind” of the crypto market. He doesn’t believe market participants draw static ethical lines but are instead moved by a “constantly oscillating barrier of tolerance towards distaste.” The more market participants there are, the closer it will represent the cultural consensus, he said.
“Each of these coins has their own specific context,” Scorched Earth Policy said. “Iryna could have developed just as much backlash as the Charlie coins if her story kept gestating. From what I understand, though, the main coin promised to provide money to her family. [But] that sort of thing is often used as a buffer mechanism to default grift resistance.”
Ultimately, the meme coin trenches are the rawest expression of free markets. With the invention of Pump.fun—and the launchpads that followed—anyone can create a meme coin for free, from their phone, in seconds. Then, anyone with a dollar in their digital wallet can buy that token, and then equally sell it.
“Personally, I feel nothing towards it,” Scorched Earth Policy said. “It’s tasteless to participate in something like that but it’s also naive to treat it like something that can be improved.”
It appears, for now at least, that meme coins pumping and dumping based on murders, disasters, and other ethically questionable ordeals are an unavoidable feature of permissionless markets, where cultural events are currency and their users are anonymous.
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Source: https://decrypt.co/339038/charlie-kirk-murder-crypto-traders-profit-debate-ethical-lines
