Unauthorized Ozempic meme coin imposed 50% tax at outset

A memecoin “OZMPC”, unaffiliated with the trending blood sugar drug, launched on Coinbase’s blockchain, Base. 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 creators imposed a 50% tax for the first two blocks. This instantly drained some early buying into the project. The team claimed that this tax counteracted malicious “sniper bots.”

The team claims that they will re-route these proceeds, which totaled less than $1 million, to support the project’s development. For example, they want to pay marketers and animators, as well as reduce the supply of the token. They claim to have already used approximately $150,000 to burn some of OZMPC’s token supply, for example.

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 liquidity could lead to prices that “differ drastically” across exchanges.

Another example of meme coin mania

The project is emblematic of the current mania in meme coins. Through taxation of early buyers who conducted minimal due diligence during the first two blocks at its outset, the project siphoned hundreds of thousands of dollars from early buyers. The team claims many of these purchases would not have been authentic purchases but rather from “sniper bots.” In any case, it claims it will put those funds back into the project.

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 formal plan for buyers’ money.

Edit 06:12 UTC, Apr 2: Deleted an inaccurate dollar amount and percentage figure of the launch tax, including citations. Added claims from OZMPC about intended use of tax proceeds, the value of initial liquidity, and its belief about sniper bots. Deleted a claim that founders had pocketed proceeds of the tax.

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