protos.com
Almost 150 memecoins themed around the death of One Direction singer Liam Payne have been created on the crypto platform Pump.fun merely minutes after his passing was announced.
The first memecoin themed around Payne’s death was created yesterday at 9:29 PM (UTC+1), minutes after his death took place at around 5 PM in Argentina (UTC−3). Payne fell from the third floor of his hotel balcony shortly after police received a phone call reporting an “aggressive man who could be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.” Officials found his room trashed, with various drug paraphernalia littered in the bathtub and across the floor.
Then, throughout the night and into the morning, 142 memecoins were created in an attempt to exploit the news of the singer’s death.
Read more: Research finds less than 0.002% of Pump.fun memecoins succeed
The majority of the Payne memecoins claim to be tributes to the singer or to his dog. Others seem crass, basing themselves around the balcony he fell from and the room reportedly trashed beforehand.
This type of activity is common among memecoiners, who will create memecoins seconds after a news story is announced, or pick a random word to turn into a coin with the hopes of it trending.
For instance, when footage from the latest HBO documentary leaked and suggested former bitcoin developer Peter Todd was Satoshi Nakamoto, Pump.fun users instantly began creating memecoins based on Todd and his pet dog. Many of these coins made up pets that Todd didn’t even own.
But as the passing of Payne shows, there’s no story too soon or too shocking for memecoiners looking to make a quick buck.