Over the past few months, several meme coins minted via platforms such as Pump.fun have gone viral for some notable reasons. However, not many among even these viral coins, have managed to rival the hype of Peanut the Squirrel (PNUT).
A Solana meme coin launched in early November this year via Pump.fun, PNUT has caught the spotlight in the crypto market because of tragic events surrounding the pet that inspired the coin, the U.S. presidential election that resulted in a Donald Trump victory, and Tweets on the topic from none other than the meme coin promoter, Elon Musk.
The Story of Peanut the Squirrel
7 years ago, Norwalk, Connecticut resident Mark Longo, on a visit to New York, found a squirrel whose mother was killed by a car. Mr. Longo rescued the orphaned animal and raised it for the following years in his Connecticut home. Named Peanut, the squirrel became an Instagram celebrity when Mr. Longo started posting videos of it on the social media platform. By late 2024, Peanut had amassed an impressive Instagram fan base of over 500,000 followers.
In 2023, Mr. Longo and his wife Daniela moved to upstate New York and created an animal sanctuary there. Naturally, their favorite pet, Peanut, also found residence at Longos' new address.
The Tragic Event
Unfortunately for Peanut, the state of New York has strict laws that prohibit keeping wild animals in a residential setting. Along with their beloved pet squirrel, the Longos were also housing another animal, a raccoon named Fred, at their New York home. A number of complaints regarding wild pets kept at their home were raised, and Mark Longo found himself the target of attention from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
Mr. Longo initially stated that he had released the animals into nature. However, Peanut's continual appearance in Instagram postings made it obvious that the squirrel was still at Longos' residence. The DEC continued to pursue the case, and in Oct 2024, the agency's officials entered the Longos' home on the basis of a search warrant and seized both pets, Peanut and Fred.
As alleged by the DEC, Peanut bit one of the officers during the seizure of the animals. Fearing that the animals might carry rabies, Peanut was euthanized in November. The heavy-handed approach by the DEC, which sent a team of at least six officers to the property, and the subsequent euthanasia of the animals caused an outcry on social media. Many people, including political figures and celebrities, have commented that the government should be preoccupied with real issues facing the public instead of seizing pets from homes.
The Birth of the PNUT Meme Coin
It didn't take long for meme coin creators to seize the internet sensation caused by Peanut's fate. The day after the squirrel's death, Peanut the Squirrel (PNUT) meme coin was launched on the Solana blockchain via the popular meme coin generator Pump.fun.
Pump.fun's choice here isn't surprising. By late 2024, Pump.fun has emerged as the leading meme coin generator platform in the crypto world. The platform lets users easily and affordably launch Solana-based meme coin assets.
PNUT's Surge
Since its introduction on Nov 2, 2024, PNUT has experienced an epic rise, growing by nearly 2,600% between its launch date and the time of this writing. The coin's initial price (when it was first listed on CoinGecko on November 2) was around $0.076. In the days before the Nov 5, 2024 presidential election, Elon Musk posted tweets lamenting the way Peanut was dealt with and turning the squirrel into a kind of political martyr and cause. One of the tweets, posted on November 3, read: "Vote For PNut! For Liberty! For Freedom!".
It's possible that Musk was referring to the euthanized squirrel only, and not to the PNUT meme coin when using the "PNut" spelling. Whatever was on the mind of the wealthiest fan of meme coins, the utilized spelling acted as another boost for the virality of the PNUT crypto token.
Where to Invest PNUT
PNUT is already available on Toobit as both spot and futures trading based on USDT. With Toobit perpetual futures, users can trade PNUT with up to 75x leverage.
If you consider investing in the coin, it's also essential to do your own research and analysis on it before buying, and PNUT is currently driven by social media hype and political events surrounding the recently concluded U.S. elections. Thus, careful research on the coin's prospects is highly recommended.
PNUT Price Prediction
Although PNUT's drastic uptrend is currently ongoing, price trajectories for highly hyped meme coins can be extremely volatile. For this reason, major price prediction portals diverge in their assessment of PNUT’s long-term prospects. For instance, PricePrediction expects PNUT to average $0.094 in 2025. In contrast, CoinCodex is much more bullish on PNUT, predicting prices of $4.5 next year.
Final Words
Just two weeks from its launch, PNUT is scaling heights that many other hyped meme coins could only dream of. The coin's stratospheric rise is an ongoing event, with its future developments hard to predict. For observers who believe that meme coins were starting to lose their earlier charm, Peanut the Squirrel now looks intent on proving them wrong.
