Meme Coin Modeled on Baby Shark Creator Collapses

A meme coin touting Pinkfong’s title collapsed on Thursday after the leisure firm behind YouTube hit Child Shark mentioned that it was unaffiliated with the token.

The meme coin, which was created utilizing Story Protocol’s community for managing mental property rights and creating spinoff works, was issued “with out authorization,” Pinkfong mentioned in a put up on X, promising “grave authorized penalties” for these violating the legislation.

Though Story Protocol is designed to take away rent-seeking intermediaries from the IP business, it seems that a purported misunderstanding between two of its customers has probably created extra work for legal professionals than tasks that secured the rights to Pinkfong’s IP historically.

Pinkfong is greater than only a pink fox: The South Korean agency, which has generated greater than 140 billion cumulative views throughout its YouTube channels, is accountable for the most well-liked video on YouTube, that includes iconic lyrics like “Child shark, doo doo doo doo doo doo.”



In a now-deleted put up on X, Story Protocol mentioned that customers may “remix and develop” the IP behind Pinkfong’s furry mascot following its tokenization, based on screenshots shared by pseudonymous blockchain sleuth ZachXBT on Thursday.

“Fascinated to see how this collaboration unfolds,” Story Protocol co-founder and CEO S.Y. Lee mentioned in a now-deleted put up.

Decrypt has reached out to Story Protocol for remark.

The meme coin debuted on Story Protocol’s community had a market capitalization of $6.32 million on Friday, based on DEX Screener. A number of hours after its kickoff on Tuesday, the token rocketed to a market capitalization of $519 million.

Bubblemaps, a well-liked on-chain visualization instrument and crypto sleuthing agency, mentioned on X that it discovered insider exercise across the meme coin. It discovered no proof that the exercise was linked to Story Protocol, however round 7% of the token’s provide was scooped up instantly.

The value of Story’s native token, which serves because the platform’s underlying medium of alternate, has been unstable, in the meantime. Since Tuesday, Story’s value has fallen from $12.91 to $7.24, whereas settling round $9.35, based on crypto information supplier CoinGecko.

Pinkfong has endorsed two meme cash that exist on Solana and BNB Chain. As talked about earlier than, the unofficial one exists on Story’s community. It debuted by means of a platform known as IP World, which says that it’s “constructed for degens, by degens.”

The venture mentioned that it had been working with a licensed accomplice of Pinkfong’s, but it surely discovered that the corporate’s license wasn’t legitimate, based mostly on settlement that it had with one other licensee. No one was prevented from partaking with the IP till that was verified.

IP World mentioned that the incident, whereas irritating, showcased a few of its safeguards. As a result of the IP wasn’t verified on IP World, “creator charges stay locked on the protocol and can’t be claimed till the rightful IP proprietor is confirmed.”

The collapse of the unofficial Pinkfong meme coin has provoked scrutiny towards Story Protocol amongst some business onlookers, however IP World made it clear on Thursday that the community underpinning its service had little to do with the precise downside.

“Story Protocol, the blockchain on which IP World operates, was by no means a celebration to this settlement nor was it in any means concerned in these licensing issues,” the venture mentioned in a put up on X on Thursday. “We’re deeply sorry for the uncertainty and confusion this has precipitated.”