Amid the rising demand for memecoins, people are building meme-themed cryptos from trending internet stuff. One such token is PNUT, derived from the internet sensation squirrel named Peanut. However, Peanut has long passed after the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation euthanized the pet in fear of it carrying rabies. This left the pet owner, Mark Longo, and the internet community heartbroken before someone created the token, which went super viral but has grown into a big Peanut the Squirrel controversy.
What is Peanut the Squirrel Controversy?
The Squirrel controversy began when some people alerted the environmental conservation authorities, leading to the seizure of Peanut and Mark’s pet raccoon, Fred, who was euthanized on November 1. With a broken heart, the owner shared the news with his 500k followers on their social media platform @Squirrel_Dad12, which later came into the spotlight, and millions of people showed support. Even Elon Musk shilled the Peanut, causing the price to surge 200%.
Later, an anonymous person created a Solana memecoin called Peanut the Squirrel (PNUT), which became a crypto market sensation and grew higher and higher on charts, achieving an ATH of $2.47 around two weeks ago. However, Mark Longo showed disappointment with the crypto community making a profit with his sorrows. With his unhappiness over the matter, he threatened to take legal action against the holders over the copyright infringement.
Interestingly, this is not the only case where people have threatened to take action against people using their personal properties in memecoins creation. Earlier, the Chillguy meme creator threatened the holder similarly after people created a CHILLGUY meme-themed token referencing his image.
PNUT Community Donated $50,000 to Mark Longo
Longo is an engineer who works in construction and also runs an animal refuge to help injured animals. After losing Peanut, Longo launched an animal refuge called P’Nuts Freedom Farm Animal Sanctuary in memory of his pet friend.
The PNUT community donated around $50,000 to this Freedom Farm initiation to show their support. Moreover, they wished to involve Longo in this growing community, but that failed with the Peanut the Squirrel controversy.
This eventually affected the token price, as PNUT is trading at $1.13 and is under a strong downtrend amid the Peanut the Squirrel controversy. Moreover, its market cap and trading volume have declined to $1.13B and 1.27B. However, despite that, its overall performance is impressive.
JUSTICE Token Escalated The Peanut The Squirrel Controversy
PNUT community’s $50,000 donation to the Freedom Farm initiation was their attempt to support the Longo’s justice appeal. However, Longo already cashed out all the tokens, which is getting backlash. More importantly, Longo has recently launched a JUSTICE token, which is believed to be funded with those tokens, fueling the Peanut the Squirrel controversy.
Exposing the greed of Mark Longo aka @Squirrel_Dad12
@OGpeanut_sol directly communicated with Mark Longo to make a donation to his Freedom Farm.
The community donated $PEANUT tokens to a sum of $50k USDT to support Mark’s family and their movement.
This greedy, unethical,…
— STILL K.A.P.O (@KAPOTHEGOAT01) November 25, 2024
In a statement, Longo stated “I’m telling you now, this movement is mine and I control who joins it. I’ll make sure my story and movement is MINE moving forward.”
Interestingly, right after its launch, the JUSTICE token gained attraction in the industry, where the price soared almost 50,000% within the first 24 hours. However, the value has declined recently, currently trading at $0.05683 with a market capitalization of $54.8M per DEXSCREENER.
With this, Longo has cleared that he will continue his own fight and has distanced himself from the Pnut community. However, people are still disappointed with his decision. Many claim that he should not have accepted the donation in the first place as he did not want to do anything with the community.
Besides, Bubblemaps reported that insiders might play dirty with the JUSTICE token, as 80% of the supply is controlled by coordinated groups.
“This looks coordinated, with strong signs that one person or a small group controls these wallets. Is the owner of Peanut using JUSTICE as a revenge plot or a cash grab? The risks here are too big to ignore.” says analysts.
Final Thoughts
Peanut the Squirrel was loved by many and was an internet sensation where more than 500,000 people were connected. However, in an unfortunate event, Peanut had to be euthanized after it bit one official. With Mark Longo’s cry for help over the internet, it became a memecoin, which went viral in the crypto industry. However, Longo did not approve of random people benefitting from his sorrow, making it the Peanut the Squirrel controversy. This led to him threatening a lawsuit and launching JUSTICE, to continue his journey away from the Pnut community.
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