The death of Pope Francis is being exploited to pump meme coin.
The passing of Pope Francis at 88 due to a respiratory infection, as reported by The Independent, has been marred by an undesirable phenomenon in the crypto world, with meme coins like RIP Pope Francis ($RIP POPE), Official Mascot of the Holy Year ($LUCE), and Pope Francis ($POPE) exploiting the death of a highly regarded world leader for pecuniary benefit. This “Holy Meme Coin” trend is a disturbing part of crypto culture in which the death of a moral person is exploited as an unashamed cashing in. $RIP POPE, founded two months ago with contract address 57LY5XaC9gVNxeqEUSANUpSwgdkGwULiZLZ5b95qpump on Solana, surged 1600% following the Pope’s passing, to a $2.2 million market cap with $5.9 million in trading volume over the last 24 hours.
$LUCE, coded five months ago at CBdCxKo9QavR9hfShgpEBG3zekorAeD7W1jfq2o3pump, surged 205%, attaining a $27.5 million market cap and $10.5 million trading volume. $POPE, coded ten months ago at hAYtTeaJLUZBvtS9ZpnrKjcLHUA44FgEyAAnMtP3EfB, surged 643%, with an $886,000 market cap and $723,000 trading volume. These tokens, that had remained idle for months, have resurfaced to capitalize on the death of the Pope, an action that many are accusing of being exploitative and disrespectful. Pope Francis, being humble and poor people’s hero, has been reduced to a meme coin trend, with such initiatives capitalizing on his death as a driver for speculative purchases. On X, where there are users who hype such tokens with careless memes, there are others who have condemned the trend as “disgusting” and “a new low for crypto.” Traded on Solana-exchanges like Raydium, the tokens survive on the speed of the blockchain but at the cost of decency, making a global moment of grief over a day of speculative frenzy.
This trend of profiting from tragedy, such as tokens featuring late pets or celebrities, is a disturbing route for meme coins. Making money from Pope Francis’ demise shows disrespect to his legacy and reflects the ethical decline in pockets of the crypto community where greed obscures right and wrong. This practice will be a wake-up call for the industry to prefer ethics over opportunism.
