Dad's plea sparks meme coin fundraiser for daughter's tumor

While the main use case of meme coins is pure speculation and gambling, despite countless frauds, these tokens can sometimes be used for the noble cause of charity.

Two interesting cases emerged over Christmas, with the crypto community coming together to help a girl with a rare brain tumor and a Thai zoo receiving a donation from a blockchain superstar.

At first, the crypto community reacted to a post on X by Siqi Chen, CEO of the startup finance platform Runway, saying that his daughter was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor called a craniopharyngioma. According to Chen, Dr. Todd Hankinson at the University of Colorado runs the only lab in the world focusing on this tumor, and this lab needs funding.

Chen has already raised over $239,000 via GoFundMe. However, a much more substantial sum might come from meme coins.

if you could press a button that cures your child’s brain tumor in exchange for ending your life immediately, every parent would hesitate for zero seconds before fighting to be the first to press it

the cruelest thing is that no such button exists.

but there is always a move 👇 pic.twitter.com/mlAbmeOpvx

undefined Siqi Chen (@blader) December 25, 2024

Someone launched a charity meme coin, MIRA, and donated half of the token's supply to Chen. At some point, the token's market capitalization hit $80 million before crashing, but it is still hovering above $13 million at the time of writing.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Chen said he would sell $1,000 worth of the MIRA token every 10 minutes "perpetually." He also promised to announce in advance in case this schedule changes.

"If you want to rug it to $0, go for it – at the end of the day we set out to raise $200K and we will end up with at least $1M towards rare disease research," Chen added.

Crypto star “adopts” a famous hippopotamus

Meanwhile, in a separate charity story, Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum (ETH), said he has become the "adoptive father" of Moo Deng, the pygmy hippopotamus whose pictures went viral this year, inspiring a meme coin and fueling its eye-watering rally.

Thanks for the warm welcome to the family and your work for wild animals!

I'm happy to be adoptive father to Moo Deng as she grows up over the next 2y and support her with my 10M THB donation, maybe more as I set aside 88 ETH for🦛+ frens. May they live long and prosper🖖🏻 pic.twitter.com/l24vPybhTi

undefined vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) December 26, 2024

Buterin announced that he donated around $293,000 in Thai baht to Khao Kheow Open Zoo, the home for Moo Deng. However, the final sum might still change, as Buterin said he set aside 88 ETH for this cause. Half of this sum has already been donated, while the rest will be donated at a yet-to-be-specified date. Therefore, the final sum will also depend on the price of ETH, which is mostly expected to grow in 2025.