Monkey Pox, a new crypto token that more than doubled in value on Wednesday, Aug. 5, has since erased all its gains amid concerns over market manipulation.
Monkey Pox (POX) dropped to a low of $0.0355, down 68% from its weekly high. This plunge reduced its market cap from over $92 million to just above $54 million.
The sharp decline is attributed to increasing fears of market manipulation, a common issue in the meme coin space.
Data from DEX Screener shows that Monkey Pox has over 25,000 holders. Further data from RugCheck shows that the largest holder controls 660 million tokens, or 66% of the total supply. The top holders own 72% of all POX tokens in circulation.
Notably, the mutable metadata can be altered by the owner at will, a risky situation since the creator is anonymous. Unlike in the stock market where disclosures are expected and required, many meme coin creators are unidentified.
Therefore, there is a risk that the creators of the Monkey Pox token may manipulate the market and leave many investors holding the bag.
This has happened before. In May, Nigerian singer Davido promoted the $DAVIDO token, which later collapsed. It is estimated that the creator, Sahil Arora, profited significantly as the token initially surged. Arora has reportedly made over $30 million from similar celebrity-themed tokens.
The Monkey Pox token was likely launched to capitalize on the fear surrounding Mpox, which the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency in August. The disease is spreading in several countries, primarily in Africa, evoking memories of COVID-19, which claimed millions of lives.
Meme coin creators are benefiting from the ease of creating tokens on platforms like Pump.fun and SunPump. Data shows that SunPump has generated over $57 million in fees in less than a month since its launch, highlighting the popularity of these tokens.
Solana’s (SOL) Pump.fun, which was used to create the Monkey Pox token, has generated over $219 million in fees in the nine months since its launch. In addition to the Monkey Pox token, creators have developed new tokens to exploit viral events. For example, political tokens like MAGA (TRUMP) and ConstitutionDAO (PEOPLE) have a market cap of over $567 million.
