What is Fartcoin? And why is it soaring right now?

Cryptocurrency enthusiasts have frequently expressed frustration with the lack of respect digital currency gets from many traditional investors. But when the hottest crypto of the moment is called “Fartcoin,” it’s kind of hard for them to occupy the moral high ground.

The joke crypto, which is even more useless than Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency started as a parody, is on a tear these days. Fartcoin’s market cap of nearly $800 million now exceeds that of several well-known brands, including Office Depot, Guess, Ethan Allen, and ZipRecruiter.

Fartcoin has even surpassed Dogecoin’s all-time highs and blown fellow memecoin Shiba Inu completely out of the water. In midday trading Monday, the token was up another 39% to 83 cents. Dogecoin, on its best day, only reached 73 cents (in May of 2021, right before Elon Musk hosted Saturday Night Live, where he joked about the coin he had pumped on Twitter most of the year, tanking its value).

In the past week, the value of Fartcoin has nearly tripled. What, in the name of financial sanity is going on?!?

The rise of Fartcoin is, in many ways, the same story as any crypto gains that have been happening lately. Traders are riding a wave that started when Donald Trump was elected. With Trump’s vow to be the “crypto president,” as well as staff appointments that are much more crypto friendly—including Paul Atkins, a pro-crypto enthusiast who will take over the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) following the upcoming resignation of SEC chair Gary Gensler—virtually every cryptocurrency has soared, even memecoins.

It’s hard to tell who’s sinking money into Fartcoin. Some Bitcoin investors may have some extra money in their digital wallets these days (Bitcoin is still rising, surpassing $100,000 on December 4), so embracing a joke coin could provide a chuckle. The thrill for many of those investors is in the gamble. They chase an adrenaline rush that comes from seeing a spike in an investment that defies logic. 

Unlike some memecoins, Fartcoin doesn’t even pretend to have intrinsic value. It takes its value entirely from its community, which share gastrointestinal memes and jokes on X. It also has a feature called “Gas Fees” that produce a digital . . . well, fart sound . . . with every transaction. (Really.) It’s a baby in the crypto world, having started trading in late October, which makes its rise all the more surprising.

More impressive, Fartcoin has quickly shown these gains while other meme and altcoins are rallying, but still nowhere near their all-time highs. Dogecoin is currently trading at 41 cents and Shiba Inu is worth just $0.00002746, 65% off its all-time high.

Of course, as with any crypto that sees dramatic run-ups in pricing, Fartcoin investors should be wary of a possible rug pull. Pumping and dumping in the world of cryptocurrency is an all-too-common occurrence. This was illustrated earlier this month when the Hawk Tuah coin debuted with huge gains, quickly hitting a market capitalization of $490 million. Three hours later, the price fell to Earth at a dizzying speed, as insiders and snipers sold their holdings. (The crypto’s current market cap is less than $73,000.)

Influencer Haliey Welch, who promoted that failed crypto, now faces the possibility of lawsuits. Her social media channels have gone silent since the debacle. 

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