The world of cryptocurrency has seen the conception of a new token coin, Grimacecoin, which was fuelled into existence and triggered a bull run after Tesla CEO Elon Musk nudged the fast-food behemoth McDonald's to accept Dogecoin as a means of payment.
“I will eat a happy meal on TV if Mcdonald’s accepts Dogecoin,” he tweeted.
Notably, Musk, being a dogecoin proponent himself, had recently announced that Tesla will resume accepting Doge as a means of payment for Tesla merchandise.
McDonald's responded by saying that it will follow Tesla's suit if the electric vehicle giant also begins accepting the then-non-existent 'Grimacecoin' for payment purposes.
“Only if Tesla accepts grimacecoin,” McDonald's tweeted back.
Internet fandom revealed that Grimace is simply a purple coloured being of an indeterminate species, potentially representative of a taste bud, which exists in McDonaldland, the cartoon metaverse of the popular fast-food chain. The conversation also saw BurgerKing also tweeting “only a king knows what da coin do” in the midst.
However, hours after this conversation, tens of cryptocurrencies began trading under the name of 'Grimacecoin' on different blockchains. According to Dex Screener, which monitors token activity on various decentralised exchanges, different varieties of this token were trading on Binance Smart Chain (BSC), Polygon, Ethereum, Avalanche and more.
Out of this, the Grimacecoin trading on BSC's PancakeSwap jumped around 1,20,000 percent over the last 24 hours, witnessing resounding, short-lived success. Yet another version of Grimacecoin did not fare as well, holding just about $830 in liquidity, 5 holders and a market capitalisation of just $1,400.
A grimacecoin based on Ethereum surged about 56,000 percent within the initial hours after its issuance, reaching 1,000 holders and a $6 million market capitalisation as well.
However, data showed that the majority of the token was held by a single entity. For instance, a version of Grimacecoin, which peaked at $2 million market capitalisation, saw around 93 percent tokens held by just one address.
Another grimacecoin, which had a supply of 1 trillion tokens, had touched as much as 1 million market capitalisation in the early hours of Thursday, locking in around $1,04,000 in liquidity during the course, with 75 percent being held by one entity.
The phenomenon accelerates the growing market for shitcoins, which are quickly becoming a way to earn a few thousand bucks on the back of many short-lived popular trends.
McDonald's had earlier forayed into the NFT space when it had launched a digital collectable for its McRib sandwich in October 2021. Lucky winners could enjoy a picture of the limited-time-only product, which the chain does not make any more. Taco Bell, another fast-food chain had also launched a collection of NFT-based digital tacos, which were an immediate sellout.
