Hippos, Hype, and a 612% Moonshot: MOODENG Scandalizes the Crypto Aristocracy

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Picture, if you will, the halcyon halls of Solana’s financial circus, suddenly upended by the arrival of Moo Deng (MOODENG), an absurdist meme coin that’s unexpectedly dragged itself—snout and all—into the limelight, shoving aside a thousand stuffy digital currencies. Its daily trading volume, with the polite subtlety of a hippopotamus entering a drawing room, has thundered past $1 billion.

Triple-digit price surges rarely bring dignity; MOODENG’s explosion is certainly no exception. Over the past week, its value has shot up so dramatically that one wonders whether it’s being traded or flung from a circus cannon. 🎪💥

MOODENG: Triumph of the Hippo (and Other Outlandish Phenomena)

MOODENG, whose key selling point is apparently the aesthetic merit of a baby pygmy hippo, rode the tidal wave of internet mania post-September 2024. Its market capitalization, previously unacquainted with six zeroes, suddenly ballooned to over $100 million. Observers in the cryptosphere clutched their pearls.

But as with all nouveau riche, the hangover arrived. November’s all-time high proved only a hillock before the inevitable slide; by early April, MOODENG’s market cap had dwindled, like the party funds after a brash weekend in Monaco, to a humbler $20 million.

Now, with a puissance that can only be attributed to either retail delirium or divine intervention, MOODENG has staged a comeback the likes of which would make even Lazarus jealous. Reports from BeInCrypto suggest a 612.3% weekly increase—several consecutive daily pumps, as if the whole process were being operated by a very excitable Victorian footman.

Further evidence of unsound exuberance: MOODENG’s price leapt 104.3% in just the past 24 hours. It currently stands at $0.24, which is, presumably, the sort of small change you’d find between the cushions in Satoshi Nakamoto’s settee. For the first time in months, MOODENG has clawed its way to the summit of CoinGecko’s trending list. In a case of poetic justice, it now wears the “Top Gainer” sash with all the bashfulness of a debutante at her coming-out ball. 👑

With the price soaring and market capitalization rudely elbowing its way past $100 million again (now at a not-so-shabby $263.8 million), trading volumes have become positively feverish. Undoubtedly, some plucky trader is out there, already scrawling his memoires entitled ‘My Fortnight with the Hippo Coin’.

CoinGecko’s abacus-wielders inform us that MOODENG’s daily trading volume sits at an astonishing $1.2 billion, a figure that would give even the medallioned forecasters of the FT a nasty turn. Coinbase, that bastion of American earnestness and FOMO, was good for 27% of all this unseemly activity. The stars and stripes fly over the trading pit, no doubt to the soundtrack of “Born to Be Wild.” 🇺🇸

Meanwhile, Solscan’s on-chain analytics reveal further carnage: buy volume on DEXs ballooned 8,201%—from $179,490 to $14.9 million in a single week. At this point, one wonders whether MOODENG is a currency or a form of performance art.

Even the “smart money,” with its legendary cool, got a case of the jitters. A widely circulated X post from StalkHQ concerns strategic investors, or as they’ll soon be known, the protagonists of the next cautionary Netflix documentary, who injected a dashing $194,000 into MOODENG on May 10. This was presumably not intended as philanthropy.

“165 new wallets have accumulated 25% of the MOODENG supply and are currently staring down a collective unrealized PNL of $25.3 million,” HolderScan reported—no doubt with both trembling and anticipation, as one does before the roulette wheel comes to a halt.

The latest kerfuffle, naturally, coincides with MOODENG’s debutante ball on Binance Alpha—which seems to have been the spark to this vigorous fandango of speculation and fever. The plebs have come in droves; retail madness is once again in vogue.

Not to be left behind, Google Trends now registers surging search interest for “MOODENG.” The trend hit a perfect 100 earlier today. One can only imagine the nervous laughter of hippo-coin evangelists, frantically refreshing their dashboards and praying for a soft landing. 🚀🦛

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2025-05-12 10:56