Meme Coin News: Sotheby’s VP Calls BAN Manipulation Accusations ‘False’ and Defamatory’, Goats and Baby Hippos Flying High
2024-10-28

Get your weekly, bite-sized digest of meme coin news.This week read about:• Meme Coin News: Market Highlights• Sotheby’s VP Denies Accusations of $1M Insider Trading• GOAT Skyrockets to Top 100 in Two Weeks• Moo Deng Surges 232% in a Day 
__________Meme Coin News: Market Highlights
Meme coins are having a red day.
Over the past 24 hours, the meme coin market capitalization has decreased by 15% to $61.6 billion.
A small majority of the top 100 meme coins are up today.
The biggest gainers are Sigma (SIGMA) and Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE). They are up 46.1% and 46% to $0.06525 and $0.04832, respectively.
Quite a few other coins on this list have recorded double-digit increases.
As for the red coins, Fartcoin (FARTCOIN) saw the biggest loss. It’s down 24%, trading at $0.03215.
Dolan Duck (DOLAN) and PepeFork (PORK) also saw double-digit drops of 16.7% and 10.2%, respectively.
When it comes to the top 10 meme coins, over the past 24 hours, three are down today.https://cryptonews.com/coins/meme-coins/Source: cryptonews.com/coins/meme-coins/
Memecoin (MEME) is down the most: 2.2% to the price of $0.01313.
Bonk (BONK) and Pepe (PEPE) fell less than 0.5%, meaning they are mostly unchanged over the past day.
On the other side, Shina Inu (SHI) surged 2,054%, entering the top 10 category.
Turbo (TURBO) is the second-best performer, rising 9% to $0.00938.
As for the top two coins, Dogecoin (DOGE) is up 4.2% to $0.14394, while Shiba Inu (SHIB) appreciated less than 0.5%.Sotheby’s VP Denies Accusations of $1M Insider Trading
In meme coin news today, on-chain data provider Lookonchain has accused Michael Bouhanna, the Vice President and Head of Digital Art at major auction house Sotheby’s, of making over $1 million via manipulation with his own meme coin.
As of the time of writing, Bouhanna hasn’t publicly responded. 
However, responding to Cryptonews’ request for comment, he called Lookonchaon’s claims “false and defamatory.”
 “These allegations are false, and I will be sending some comments soon.”
We will include additional comments when available.
On October 27, Lookonchain a tweet claiming that Bouhanna, after several failed attempts at making money in the meme coin market, used his own wallet to launch a meme coin BAN.
He had earlier allegedly confirmed this to be his own wallet, though this cannot be verified at this point without further information.
“On Oct 22 alone, he traded more than 10 MEMEcoins on Pump.fun. Therefore, he used the wallet “5W7U…b3cV” to launch Ban to make money,” Lookonchain wrote.
2/ once publicly commented that "5W7U…b3cV" was his address(the post has been deleted by him)."5W7U…b3cV" is the deployer of . — Lookonchain (@lookonchain) 
Subsequently, the post alleges, the VP used one insider wallet to buy and flip BAN, earning over $1 million in the process.
There was another wallet reportedly used for funding, which may or may not belong to the VP.
 other sources, Bouhanna holds 3.78% of BAN’s total supply.
5/ "3wj7…yBoG" was also funded by "EwVB…mD2", which may belong to .He spent only 10.2 ($1,795) to buy 36.27M and sold 18.13M for $137.6K, leaving 18.13M (worth $900K).His total profit on exceeded $1M! — Lookonchain (@lookonchain) 
Commenters, however, have stated that certain images could have been photoshopped by scammers and that the story sounds implausible.
Brian Beccafico, Founder and Curator at Artcrush Gallery and ex-NFT Specialist at Sotheby’s, is one of the people doubting the allegations.
He argued, among other points, that “the past trade history amount compared to the cost of launching the coin is out of character given Michael’s risk profile.”
Hey there I have been going through a drama on X while I was at Sothebys and let’s say you can really defend yourself as you wish since you sorta represent the tagging Michael is beside the point ya’ll. Back then I would have apreciated if people would…— Arthemort (@Arthemort) 
Meanwhile, is down 5.4% in a day and 22.7% in a week, trading at $0.002225.
Its market capitalization is $3.54 million.
The coin is centered around the taped banana art piece auctioned by Sotheby’s in November. The piece was also by Bouhanna as “the most significant work of the 21st century.”You might also likeSUI Price Forecast: Allegations of $400M Insider Sales Loom Over 120% Rally – What’s Next?GOAT Skyrockets to Top 100 in Two Weeks
The artificial intelligence (AI)-created meme coin Goatemus Maximus (GOAT) has had quite a week.
GOAT is not even a month old, yet it jumped 522.3% over the past fortnight.
While it fell 1.9% in the last day, it’s also up 99.5% in the last seven days.
At the time of writing, it’s trading at $0.6817.
With this increase, GOAT is outperforming both the global crypto market and similar meme coins, which are down 0.7% and 2.9%, respectively.
Notably, major crypto exchange Binance recently the launch of GOAT Perpetual Contracts.
This seems to be the first coin from the Pump.fun platform to enter the world’s biggest exchange.
GOAT is currently created via Pump.fun, followed by michi and MOODENG.
Additionally, as Cryptonews reported earlier, a major factor fueling the young coin’s rally last week was the flurry of exchange listings, including BitMEX, Bitget, Gate.io, WOO, HTX, and Crypto.com.
This led the coin to break into the top 100 coin category two weeks after its launch. It has started this week at the 101st place.
The coin’s current market capitalization is $686,821,479. The trading volume in the last 24 hours is $342,484,251, which is a 20.4% increase from one day ago, suggesting a rise in market activity.You might also likeAI-Created ‘Goatseus Maximus’ Coin Secures $500 Million – New Crypto Trend?Moo Deng Surges 232% in a Day
In other meme coin news today, besides GOAT, another animal-themed coin still firmly in the traders’ focus is Moo Deng (MOODENG).
It has recorded increases on all time fronts except the 30-day one.
It’s up nearly 4% in a day, 165% in a week, and 81% in two weeks. On the other hand, it’s down 28.1% in a month.
That said, MOODENG recorded a notable surge on October 25, jumping 231.6% to $0.247985.
It has since fallen slightly, currently standing at $0.2291.
The coin hit its all-time high of $0.3387 in late September this year, decreasing by 32.8% since.
MOODENG 7-day price chart:Source: coingecko.com
Similarly to GOAT, Moo Deng surged by 131% after the announcement that Binance Futures would launch its perpetual contract.
“Binance Futures will launch the MOODENGUSDT Perpetual Contract at 2024-10-25 10:00 (UTC) with up to 75x leverage,” the exchange on Friday.
Hello Binance 👋🏻🥺❤️✨ — Moo Deng (@moodengx) 
Meanwhile, MOODENG’s trading volume over the last day is $197,517,481, marking a 10.6% drop in 24 hours.
Its market capitalization currently stands at $222,341,796.You might also like$401 to $1.6 Million? Here’s the Wild Story of a Trader Who Hit Big with Moo Deng