Peanut the Squirrel Meme Coin Jumps on Coinbase Plans as Gigachad Hits All-Time High

Peanut the Squirrel (PNUT), a Solana meme coin inspired by a social media-famous squirrel, jumped 19% in the hour following news that prominent exchange Coinbase intends to list it for trading. 

The token, which soared after the squirrel was seized and subsequently euthanized by New York state authorities in October over fears of rabies, is now trading at $1.27 with a $1.27 billion market cap, according to CoinGecko. It's up 27% on the day.

Its addition to Coinbase’s listing roadmap makes it the latest in a line of meme coins like Mog Coin (MOG) and Moo Deng (MOODENG) from the Ethereum and Solana blockchains that Coinbase has listed, or intends to list in the near future.

The American exchange had typically been slow about listing meme coins compared to other prominent crypto exchanges, but has changed its tenor in the last month following the election win of Donald Trump, a pro-crypto candidate.

“Coinbase strives to bring to market the products and services our customers want,” a Coinbase representative told Decrypt when asked about the trend last week. 

Upon each listing announcement, tokens typically see a boost in their respective prices, an effect observed and dubbed the “Coinbase Effect” as early as 2019.

Most recently, MOG and Gigachad (GIGA) experienced the phenomenon. MOG jumped 20% in the hour following its Coinbase listing announcement and later marked a new all-time high price after it gained a formal listing on the exchange.

GIGA, which rose and then fell after the roadmap announcement, is surging once more, gaining more than 42% in the last 24 hours and establishing a new all-time high price of $0.077 after Coinbase users gained access to the token around 12:20pm ET.  

Despite the boost, PNUT is still trading 45% below its all-time high of $2.44 as marked on CoinGecko, which it achieved on November 14, just three days after the token received a spot listing from top global exchange Binance.

At a $1.27 billion market cap, Peanut the Squirrel holds the throne as the most valuable coin ever created on Pump.fun, the popular Solana-based meme coin launchpad that has been used to deploy more than four million meme coins this year.

One lucky trader was able to turn just $16 into more than $3 million in just two weeks of holding PNUT. While meme coins have provided some traders with major gains, they are often associated with high volatility and risk, and can plunge as rapidly as they rise.

Edited by Andrew Hayward