Crypto traders embrace absurdity amid tariff volatility
Crypto traders are leaning into absurdity during a time of tariff volatility and broader market uncertainty, catalyzing the recent surge around Fartcoin and other Solana-based meme coins inspired by topics like flatulence and anatomical features.
Fartcoin is up 30% in the last 24 hours to $0.96, marking a 97% gain in the last seven days and nearly 250% jump in the last 30 days, according to CoinGecko.
During a time when major coins have taken hard hits and some remain well down—Ethereum is down 13% on the week—why is Fartcoin resonating with traders? There may be comfort in nonsense, or at least in meme coins that previously skyrocketed and now are doing so yet again.
“I think everyone knows what they’re getting into,” Matthew Nay, a research analyst on Messari’s protocol services team, told Decrypt about tokens like Fartcoin. “Like how Bitcoin is the original meme coin. You didn’t know the founder… it was this decentralized thing in practice. With Fartcoin, there is no founder to rug you, there is no timeline or roadmap that it has to adhere to. Instead, you’re just speculating on sentiment.”
Sentiment surrounding the token has improved of late as its mindshare has more than doubled to 28.72% since April 1, leading all other AI-related tokens according to data from analytics platform Cookie.fun. The platform uses data from X (formerly Twitter) and the Solana blockchain to determine a token’s mindshare among crypto participants.
For those participants, the risk appetite and “long-term bullish bias” on crypto haven’t faded, according to Nay.
“Not that many people left in the last 2-3 months, and they all remember making a lot of money on meme coins, specifically Fartcoin with its incredible run-up,” he added.
The token, which was dreamt up by an AI agent last October, hit an all-time high mark of $2.48 in January. It then crashed to a low of about $0.20 in March, but has substantially rebounded in recent weeks.
The simplicity and absurdity of Fartcoin has seemingly trickled into other high-performing meme coins on the Solana blockchain, where Buttcoin and Titcoin—both of which have a logo that turns the Bitcoin “B” sideways to mimic buttocks and breasts—are running higher.
The coins are up 39% and 18% on the day, respectively, outpacing the entire meme coin category—which is up just 2%, according to CoinGecko. To Nay, their success follows a popular crypto phenomenon of riffing on existing successes.
“This is just a continuation we see across all of crypto with forked projects,” he said. “As soon as someone sees something successful, they try to recreate a very similar version to draft on the first iteration’s success: Uniswap to Sushi Swap, Ohm to Abracadabra, etc.”
Their fate in the near future is anyone’s guess, however, particularly given Fartcoin’s wild swings over the past months. The Messari analyst said he’s curious to see what happens to these memes should even more negative financial news come out in the near-term.
“We’re simmering down on the macro environment,” he said. “People are ready to turn on the gas a little more and get back to focusing on crypto fundamentals,” he added, noting that without major negative news ahead, a new meme coin surge could arrive.
Edited by Andrew Hayward