Chen, the cryptocurrency personality known online as “machibigbrother,” saw the meme token TAIWAN surge to a market value of roughly $1.7 million shortly after its Sept. 1 launch before falling to about $600,000, according to GMGN blockchain-market data. The rapid reversal came after Chen promoted the token’s contract address on X and described a plan to enter the market without retaining an initial allocation.
TAIWAN was launched alongside TSM, a token framed around Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. The project had slightly more than 1,000 holder addresses when GMGN recorded the data, while liquidity stood near $200,000. Its short-lived move illustrates the concentrated, high-speed trading environment surrounding celebrity-linked tokens: a promoter’s public post can rapidly create volume and market capitalization, but those figures can retreat just as quickly when early buyers take profits or demand fades.
Public records on fomo.family, where Chen later promoted TAIWAN, show that he bought a total of $7,636.24 worth of the token at an average market capitalization close to $769,000. The records showed no sales at the time of reporting. The platform displayed creator-fee revenue of $4,784.28 for TAIWAN, creating a separate revenue stream from the token’s spot-market price.
Chen’s open-market purchase claim faces a volatile first test
Ahead of the launch, Chen said he would issue TAIWAN with “zero holdings” and purchase tokens in the open market. That approach differs from the common meme-token model in which a creator or affiliated wallets receive a portion of supply before public trading begins.
An open-market purchase can make a promoter’s activity more visible, particularly when transactions are linked through public dashboards. It does not remove the risks faced by traders buying into a token after a social-media campaign has already driven up attention and valuation. In TAIWAN’s case, the token reached its $1.7 million peak within its first hour after Chen’s post, leaving buyers who entered near the top exposed to the subsequent decline.
Liquidity is especially relevant in this type of launch. A market value can rise sharply based on the latest trades even when the available pool of assets is modest. With approximately $200,000 in liquidity, larger sales could have a meaningful effect on TAIWAN’s price, particularly if trading activity slows after the initial promotional cycle.
The $1.7 million peak and later $600,000 valuation should also be read as snapshots rather than fixed measures of money committed to the project. Market capitalization is calculated from token supply and the most recent price; it does not mean that an equivalent amount of capital can necessarily be withdrawn from the liquidity pool.
A record that gives new launches added scrutiny
TAIWAN is not Chen’s first token-related venture, and his prior projects are likely to shape the response to the latest launch. Chen previously raised $51.6 million in a 2017 token sale for Mithril, a project associated with roughly 60,000 ETH at the time of the sale, according to the account provided. Mithril’s token later lost essentially all of its value by 2022.
Chen was also associated with Cream Finance, a lending protocol that suffered multiple security breaches in 2020 and led to user losses. Those incidents involved protocol-security failures rather than meme-token trading, but they remain part of the public record surrounding a figure now asking traders to assess a new token launch.
In 2024, Chen launched Boba Oppa on Solana, which raised more than $40 million worth of SOL in a presale within 24 hours, according to the supplied account. The token then fell more than 70% on the same day. The episode became an example of how presale demand and social-media momentum can produce substantial funding before a token develops stable secondary-market support.
More recently, Chen said on Aug. 27 that he planned a $1 million acquisition of Friend.tech. Friend.tech’s market value climbed from below $300,000 to more than $6 million after that post, according to the supplied figures. The move showed how announcements involving recognizable online personalities can affect thinly traded crypto assets even before a proposed transaction is completed.
Meme-token promotion expands across competing launch venues
The TAIWAN launch also arrives as on-chain personalities in several markets continue to use token-creation platforms as trading and audience-building tools. In Chinese-language crypto communities, figures including 0xSun, Wang Xiaoe and Crypto D have been active around tokens launched through Pump.fun.
Wang Xiaoe posted on Aug. 31 that he had bought BONER. The token later reached a market value of about $90 million before retreating to roughly $54 million, according to the supplied account. On Sept. 2, 0xSun and Crypto D promoted JOHNDOG, which reached a peak valuation of $2.5 million.
Pump.fun account data cited in the material showed that 0xSun had accumulated a net loss of approximately $16,400 since joining the platform. That outcome underlines the difficulty of treating a promoter’s public trades as a reliable signal. Even visible, experienced participants can lose money in markets driven by abrupt shifts in attention, shallow liquidity and fast-moving token creation.
A similar pattern appeared around COPPERINU, a token on Robinhood Chain. Him Gajria, described in the supplied account as a Solana-focused meme promoter during the 2024 artificial-intelligence meme cycle, received 40% of COPPERINU’s supply. The token reached a $30 million market value before falling to around $8 million by the time of reporting.
TAIWAN’s early trading therefore fits a familiar structure: public promotion creates immediate visibility, market capitalization rises faster than liquidity, and the token’s price becomes highly sensitive to the first wave of selling. Chen’s disclosed purchases and lack of recorded sales offer more visibility than an undisclosed allocation would, but they do not change the underlying mechanics facing traders who enter after a rapid run-up.
Before chasing hype-driven pumps like TAIWAN, learn critical risk management and scam-spotting strategies to protect your capital.
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