Youtuber creates a crypto coin for fun. It skyrockets by 15,000% to US$150 million in 2 weeks.

Depending on what you think about cryptocurrencies, this story is either going to seem like a confirmation of their greatness or their utter craziness. Most of all, it’s a remarkable social experiment

A popular Youtuber, Patrick Shyu, known as TechLead (ex-Google, ex-Facebook lead ;)), two weeks ago announced to his 1+ million followers that he is launching his own digital token - Million Token.

By his own, slightly satirical (like his entire channel), definition, it’s a stablecoin that can appreciate - initially valued at 1 to 1 with USD (backed by a million dollars of his money) but with infinite growth potential, as its supply is capped at just one million coins. In other words - as the demand for it increases, its value going to go up, as no more coins can be added.

With a trademark dry humor and a smirk occasionally escaping his otherwise very composed demeanor, TechLead is certainly having fun but his coin is no joke. It’s very real, can be traded via Uniswap and has also just been listed on Gate.io. About 10,000 people have currently invested in the meme token, bringing its value up by ca. 15,000% in just two weeks.

Within hours the coin’s value jumped by a few hundred percent, briefly stabilizing around $10 after a week before jumping again this week, currently trading at… over $150, down a bit from a high of $223 two days ago.

Image Credit: Coingecko

It means that the token launched on July 1st with $1 million injected by Patrick is now worth over $150 million - with a goal of reaching market cap of coins like Shiba ($3-4 billion) or even Doge (ca. $25 billion).

TechLead is the liquidity provider, gradually releasing the token to enable transactions, so he's no longer holding the majority of coins - but his goal was, reportedly, to store 10 to 15% for his own keeping. So, at current rates it would still have turned his initial investment up to $15-25 million. Likely much more, as he has been adding them over time, as the prices increased. Not bad for two weeks!

Of course Million can still appreciate, making hundreds of millions more for him in the process, even with his minority stake - and billions for all "investors".

Humour is strong with the Million Token. But it's real and you can trade it like any other.

It’s hard to say what you should think about the project.

It’s serious and not serious at the same time. Serious, because it exists - and not, because it doesn’t really add anything new. It’s just another smart contract on Ethereum blockchain that comes with certain rules (1 million coin cap, $1 backing for each coin) - but just like nearly every other crypto token you can’t use it for much other than digital gambling.

To the moon!

And yet, due to a combination of the reach of the author, dedication of the community “investing” in the coin for fun and its undeniable meme-factor it has taken off like no other stock, commodity, product or pretty much anything of tangible value in the world.

Each token is little else than a single, digitized US dollar. And yet online buzz through a few YT videos was all it needed to turn that one dollar into one hundred and fifty dollars as I write these words. Perhaps many more in the future.

On one hand it may seem amazing that a private individual with some money on hand can write a relatively simple contract, launch it on Ethereum blockchain, getting a completely new token up within a matter of days and then turn it into a de facto full-blown cryptocurrency worth hundreds of millions of dollars in less than a month.

What the technology allows is monetization of emotions, entertainment provided by the author. It is what turned an ordinary US dollar into the Million.

On the other hand, however, it does highlight the often insane absurdity of the crypto world - at least at this stage of its existence. It’s still a free-for-all, Wild West, unchecked, unregulated digital gambling banking on little else than people’s sentiments towards something that is just a product of someone’s imagination.

I really can’t tell where this is going but it sure is entertaining to watch!

Disclaimer: Author had no holdings of the Million Token or any other cryptocurrency at the time of the writing of the article - nor does he intend to.

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PS. Some online sleuths have accused Patrick of scamming his followers by tampering with liquidity without actually selling the coins. Whether or not this is true, it further highlights the unregulated and unpredictable nature of the crypto market.

It has to be noted that he is also known as a major troll in the community, so it’s likely that this entire project is a play on the crypto hysteria, that has had people buying up anything that gives the slightest promise of a quick and high return.

The fact remains that thousands of people have deemed it worthy to “invest“ in something that has no intrinsic value. Much like they do with other coins, to be honest.

If highlighting this absurdity was the goal of the Million, then it surely has already been accomplished.