Avalanche Foundation is about to start buying memecoins for the ‘culture’

Avalanche Foundation — the nonprofit organization overseeing the development of the Avalanche Network — says it plans to buy memecoins with its $100 million nonfungible token (NFT) incubator fund.

In a Dec. 29 post on X (formerly Twitter), the Avalanche Foundation said the new move will form part of its “Culture Catalyst” initiative — a $100 million program launched in March 2022 initially designed to fund promising NFT projects on the network.

“This initiative seeks to better position Avalanche to cultivate and support the many new forms of creativity, culture, and lifestyle that blockchain enables,” it said, explaining the initiative. 

The foundation said it will achieve this by using the fund to purchase “select Avalanche-based meme coins to create a collection,” to “recognize and encourage the culture and fun symbolized by meme coins."

Last year, the Avalanche Foundation launched Culture Catalyst, a program aimed at empowering creators, sparking innovation, and propelling the adoption of blockchains. This initiative seeks to better position Avalanche to cultivate and support the many new forms of creativity,…

— Avalanche (@avax) December 29, 2023

Avalanche claimed that memecoins “go beyond mere utility assets” and stand as a representation of the “collective spirit and shared interests of diverse crypto communities.”

“TLDR: Avalanche Foundation to buy memecoins,” wrote an observer on X.

“We will be max bidding all memecoins on our chain,” another X user quipped. 

Avalanche has opened the floodgates with this announcement about the foundation buying memecoins

There is no reason to sneak around anymore. There hasn’t been any real blowback, which greenlights other chains to openly back memecoins

— BowTiedNightOwl (@BowTiedNightOwl) December 29, 2023

However, not any old worthless memecoin can be added to the foundations’ collection, with Avalanche clarifying that stringent selection criteria will be applied to all potential portfolio additions.

“The selection process for this collection is based on several key criteria, including the number of holders, liquidity thresholds, project maturity, principles of a fair launch, and overall social sentiment, among other factors.”

The memecoin that has dominated the Avalanche narrative in recent weeks is a rooster-themed token called Coqinu (COQ) — which might be a not-so-subtle reference to something rather phallic. 

The token does not shy away from the fact that it is inherently worthless, explicitly stating that the coin holds “no intrinsic value” and has no team nor roadmap on its official website.

Despite this, the token surged more than 1.47 million percent between its inception on Dec. 8 and its all-time high on Dec. 20, according to DexScreener data.

Avalanche’s announcement comes in the wake of a marketwide frenzy for memecoins across almost every blockchain network capable of supporting smart contracts or inscriptions.

Related: Trader gambles $226K on Solana memecoin, hits $1.69M in 5 days

One trader managed to turn $450 into just over $1.5 million of realized profit.

A trader turned $454 into $2.19M in 2 weeks by trading $COQ , a gain of 4827x!

This trader spent 17.26 $AVAX ($454) to buy 4.86T $COQ through 7 addresses, then sold 4.61T $COQ for 32,251 $AVAX ($1.26M) and 259K $USDC .

Currently holding 250B $COQ ($700K), the profit is ~$2.19M. pic.twitter.com/arsaX6Uey8

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) December 19, 2023

According to on-chain data from blockchain data service Lookonchain, the trader used 17.26 Avalanche ( AVAX ) tokens ($454) to buy 4.86 trillion COQ through seven different wallets.

One week later, traders sold 4.61 trillion COQ for 32,251 AVAX, worth $1.26 million.

The trader is still sitting on 250 billion COQ, which is worth $318,300 at current prices.

NFT Creator: J1mmy.eth once minted 420 Bored Apes… and had NFTs worth $150M