Crypto 'Mongoose' Meme Machine Kicks Into Gear After Congressman’s Joke

(Bloomberg) -- It didn’t take long for Democratic Representative Brad Sherman of California to become an inspiration for cryptocurrency token creators after he disparaged the coin-eat-coin world of digital assets. 

During a House Financial Services Committee hearing on crypto Wednesday, Sherman appeared to reference a story of an old woman who swallows bigger and bigger animals to catch the previously swallowed animal, while saying “the No. 1 threat to cryptocurrency is crypto.” He went on to say that Bitcoin could be unseated by Ether, which could be displaced by Doge, to only be replaced by Hamster Coin and then Cobra Coin, and then “what could Mongoose Coin do to crypto coin?” he asked, capping the rhetorical joke.

The crypto world responded almost immediately, minting several tokens themed around the fictional Mongoose Coin overnight. Meme traders, those who buy and sell the hottest tokens of the moment, rallied around them. Twitter accounts have been made and now sport thousands of followers. There’s a Mong Coin, a Goose Coin, a Mongoose Coin and other variations on the theme -- showing just how easy it has become to produce the wildly popular tokens that have no real value or purpose. 

Indeed, DeFi or what is called decentralized finance has accelerated the pace of new tokens being minted as the creation of platforms made it easier for anyone, even those who are not tech savvy, to jump in and use off-the-shelf software coding tools. There are more than 15,400 tokens with a collective market capitalization of more than $2 trillion, according to crypto research platform CoinMarketCap. That’s several times more than the amount that were in existence just three years ago. And Sherman’s comment only stoked desires to bring more meme tokens to market. 

Sherman-inspired coins have been created on the Avalanche, Polygon and Binance Smart Chain networks. Each has differing token supplies and has performed accordingly. Mongoose Coin, for example, had a listed market capitalization of $9 million, while Mongoose Coin Dao has a $914,000 value and Sherman Coin is at $148,000, according to Dextools.

A Twitter account holder named BitLord posted a video, wishing Sherman a “good morning” and calling him a “legend.” 

Even so, Sherman observed that the crypto world’s “self-mocking humor” is a threat to itself, saying during an interview Thursday, that true capitalism channels “animal spirits” into some public social good, whereas memes only seem to inspire greed.  

“How can you pay a fortune for a Bitcoin if you can’t be certain that in 20 years from now that it’s going to be more valuable than a Hamster Coin,” Sherman said by telephone. “And how can you pay anything for a Hamster Coin, if a joke made by a bald congressman from LA at a hearing is gonna rip your Hamster Coin with its Mongoose teeth.” 

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