Whale loses $500K on MIRA token as charity token trend gains ground

A whale lost $500K on the MIRA token, which built up hype around being linked to rare disease research. The token was tied to Siqi Chen, co-founder of Serious Business and Runway, with no previous connections to crypto or memes. 

The MIRA token saw active trading after a big part of the supply was sent to Siqi Chen, co-founder of Serious Business and Runway. The initial hype around the token suggested the asset would be used to fund research into rare diseases. However, soon after the launch, MIRA went through extreme volatility. 

Recently, MIRA wiped as much as $500K from a whale trader, who poured more than $1.56M into the token. The buyer is still holding, though. Within hours, the value of the token holdings fell to $718,000, extending its downward trend. Despite the noble cause, once Chen sold his share and whales took profit, the token did not find support from anywhere else.

The whale that lost on MIRA has been aping into meme tokens since November, targeting the hottest trending memes. The whale had scored significant gains in the same wallet, with $1.1M in PNUT tokens, and $962K worth of PENGU.

MIRA helped fund research, but early buyers took profits

MIRA appeared on Christmas day when it was airdropped to Siqi Chen. Later, Chen received a large part of the supply of Kitkat, a new token named after his dog. Chen only provided a crypto wallet after a community request, as an additional payment option to the GoFundMe page for his research cause. 

MIRA was generated on Solana by an anonymous creator with the message that it would help with scientific funding. The token was named after Mira, Chen’s young daughter, who suffers from a rare and life-threatening form of brain tumor.

The token’s initial story was appealing enough to early buyers, but MIRA’s rally was short-lived, leading to large losses. 

Chen himself sold his share of the token, promising to use the funds for further research. However, early traders that sniped the token right after the launch actually made profits, with no intention of supporting science or research. At the same time, other buyers lost a significant part of their net value, expecting buyers to hold MIRA for the long term. 

“How much degens make or lose money in the pvp trenches of pump is not something that is any of my business. if you made a lot of money, i’m genuinely happy for you – but please consider donating some of your profits to hankinson lab., if you lost a lot of money, i’m very sorry – but magic internet money is magic internet money,” wrote Chen in a lengthy X post. 

Still in the first days since its launch, MIRA is yet to have a relief rally, raising questions about the ethics of funding through meme tokens. 

Before whales realized profits, Chen held up to $18M worth of MIRA tokens. Initially, the share was worth $400K, but MIRA appreciated as rapidly as other meme tokens. However, the asset lacked enough liquidity to absorb real whale selling, leading to deepening losses.

Just days after the token’s launch, MIRA liquidity is down to $771K, practically leaving holders unable to sell without crashing the market.

MIRA launch sparks a trend of research-funding tokens

The hype around MIRA created a new type of meme tokens in the “launch to save” trend. While Chen’s cause had a real-life basis and real research potential, other meme tokens were just created to ride the hype, producing risky assets that would be rug-pulled immediately.

Pump.fun saw an inflow of new tokens with the “charity” tag in the days around Christmas. It especially capitalized on people’s generosity. 

“Charity” has turned into a meta-narrative for new launches, where the token creators do not even bother to actually donate. 

The creators launch tokens, and then donate a portion to the wallets of legitimate organizations. However, the real goal is to make profitable trades, often leaving the real organizations with no value.

Earlier this year, Vitalik Buterin wrote about the potential of meme tokens to raise funds for charity. Buterin himself often liquidates meme assets and sends the funds to support his favorite projects. However, the recent meta-narrative of charity tokens is much riskier, as it may benefit dishonest early holders.

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