Charlie Kirk’s killing turned into memecoin spectacle
In grimly predictable fashion, a raft of memecoins and bad taste jokes have flooded the crypto space in the wake of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk’s shooting on Wednesday.
Dozens, if not hundreds, of Kirk-themed memecoins were created on the memecoin platform Pump Fun, with some reaching market caps as high as $37 million.
Predictably, many have have already plummeted in price, suggesting their creators rug-pulled the tokens at the expense of other opportunists.
On top of this, some memecoin creators were able to net over $300,000 from their Kirk tokens thanks to Pump Fun’s creator reward program.
Read more: Hundreds of Liam Payne memecoins created minutes after his death
The gross ritual of greed is nothing new in the memecoin space. The same thing happened days earlier when graphic footage of the stabbing of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska was made public.
It also happened when One Direction singer Liam Payne died, and, unfortunately, is likely to continue as long as there’s money to be made.
Charlie Kirk’s death went viral immediately
Kirk was a prominent right-wing influencer who traveled to various US universities debating students about his highly controversial views on abortion, immigration, gun laws, and religion.
The footage of his killing went viral online within minutes and some crypto streamers capitalized on the event by making shocking jokes in order to gain social media traction.
A backlash from users online led to streamer “RASMR” deleting his post.
Read more: The state of crypto is a million dildos who think they’re interesting
Tributes poured in for Kirk when news of his death was announced. Among those sending their condolences was pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht who said Kirk, “stood up for his beliefs and died for them at 31.”
He added, “At 31, my life was taken from me for standing up for what I believed in. And Charlie helped me get it back. He never took credit for it but he played a BIG role in my freedom in many ways.”
Another ugly side to the affair involved the crypto prediction market Polymarket. Indeed, its founder, Shayne Coplan, likes to position the crypto firm as a news organisation.
However, its news account, Polymarket Intel, doesn’t feel the need to hold itself to actual journalistic standards and chose to share uncensored footage of the killing with no prior trigger warning for viewers.
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