protos.com
A memecoin “OZMPC”, unaffiliated with the trending blood sugar drug, launched on Coinbase’s blockchain, Base. Within an hour, CoinGecko’s Terminal warned that the Ozempic meme coin had precariously thin liquidity across its trading pairs.
The token OZMPC is an abbreviation of Ozempic, yet is completely unauthorized by Novo Nordisk, the Danish maker of the Type 2 diabetes prescription drug. Novo Nordisk has not bothered to comment on the coin. The pharma giant owns global rights to the drug Ozempic and could assert its legal rights against the operators of this unlicensed crypto token.
OZMPC’s creator imposed a punishing, 70% tax on buy transactions during its launch phase. This instantly drained the majority of early buying into the project. The token has fallen 65% from its all-time high and now trades far below one penny.
With a negligible market capitalization, Gecko Terminal prominently warns potential buyers that its vanishingly thin liquidity could lead to prices that “differ drastically” across exchanges. On most crypto exchanges around the world, OZMPC has no bid whatsoever.
As of publication time, the $5+ million worth of money already siphoned from the Ozempic meme via smart contract taxes exceeds the current market capitalization of OZMPC.
Read more: Bots are front-running bots front-running Base meme coins
Another example of meme coin mania
The project is emblematic of the current mania in meme coins. Through malicious taxation of early buyers who conducted minimal due diligence, the project siphoned millions of dollars from users.
Worse, because the token uses the registered name of a patented drug, its founder could face legal ramifications for authorized use.
The pattern repeats endlessly across the meme coin industry. In many ways, it resembles the ICO mania of early 2018. The only difference is that this time, meme coin founders do not even bother to write a whitepaper, roadmap, or make any sort of plan for buyers’ money. Instead, as was the case of OZMPC, they shamelessly siphon buyers’ money directly into their pockets.
Read more: Meme coins add 2017 ICO-style ‘utility’ to offerings