Coinbase Pumps Ethereum and Solana Meme Coins With Latest Listing Plans

Coinbase further signaled its acceptance of meme coins on Wednesday, announcing its intentions to support trading for Gigachad (GIGA) and Turbo (TURBO) by adding the tokens to its listing roadmap. 

GIGA and TURBO tokens both saw swift upward price movements, jumping 37% and 15% respectively in the hour after the announcement from the Coinbase Assets account on X (formerly known as Twitter). 

Though announced together, the tokens come with distinct backstories and communities from two separate blockchains.

Gigachad, based on the meme of a hyper-muscular male model, is a Solana-based token that has risen to prominence this year, curating an enthusiastic community of supporters—one so enthusiastic that he decided to get the contract address tattooed on his chest, albeit incorrectly. 

The token, which briefly spiked to near $700 million on the roadmap announcement, has since retraced to just more than $500 million, settling 28% off its all-time high according to CoinGecko.

Man Gets Meme Coin Address Tattooed—But There's a Typo

A Gigachad (GIGA) investor got the Solana meme coin’s contract address tattooed on his chest. But once he posted the proof on Twitter, he discovered that the token address now permanently imprinted on his skin was actually wrong. Pseudonymous Twitter user Hop said he decided that he wanted to get a tattoo dedicated to his favorite meme coin because, he claimed, the token has completely changed his life “mentally, spiritually, and of course financially.”  Another GIGA community member got the tic...

Turbo, on the other hand, is an Ethereum-based meme coin that was created using a $69 budget and ChatGPT. Its price has surged this year alongside other AI-related crypto tokens, jumping more than 6,000% according to CoinGecko.

After jumping to more than a $625 million market cap at the time of the announcement, Turbo has since retraced to a $574 million market cap, 36% off its all-time high.

The pair makes seven new meme coins listed or soon to be listed on Coinbase’s exchange in recent weeks, following MOG and MOODENG, which Coinbase added to its listing roadmap this week. MOODENG is set to start trading later today, with MOG trading to follow on Thursday.

In the case of each roadmap announcement, a notable price spike occurred within the first hour, with the token falling more slowly in the hours that followed. It is well documented that coins move upward on Coinbase listings, dubbed the “Coinbase Effect.”

Coinbase Cuts Ties With Law Firms Hiring 'Anti-Crypto' SEC Officials

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has drawn a firm line in the sand, announcing the crypto exchange has severed ties with law firms employing former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission officials who led what he described as a campaign to “unlawfully kill” the crypto industry. “We’ve let all the law firms we work with know that if they hire anyone who committed these bad deeds in the (soon to be) prior administration, we will no longer be a client of theirs,” Armstrong wrote on X on Monday. The cr...

Meme coins are tokens typically based on popular memes or cultural references. They are often more volatile and riskier than major crypto assets, but have risen in popularity this year thanks to platforms like Pump.fun that have made it easier and cheaper for anyone to launch tokens.

Edited by Andrew Hayward