Enthusiast Raises $1 Million for Daughter’s Brain Cancer Treatment via Meme Coin

Siqi Chen, founder of the Runway app, launched the meme coin Mira (MIRA) to fund research into his daughter’s brain tumor. 

this is a long read, but i had some time to think over dinner and wanted to share a few thoughts and provide a plan forward:

0. i’ve had a lot of very memorable days on the internet over the past 30 years, but this one tops them all. my wife yi and i are unbelievably grateful to… pic.twitter.com/Aeggjc7vwH

— Siqi Chen (@blader) December 26, 2024

The uniqueness of the disease meant no prior research had been conducted.

Chen committed to selling MIRA at $1000 every 10 minutes to ensure continuous funding for the Hankinson Lab at the University of Colorado to study this form of cancer.

The Runway founder raised $251,263 of the $300,000 goal at the time of writing through the GoFundMe platform.

Chen also shared his Ethereum, Solana, and Bitcoin wallets to expand donation options.

Donations exceeded $1 million.

The developer pledged to allocate every cent to rare disease research and provide a report on the operations.

this is a long read, but i had some time to think over dinner and wanted to share a few thoughts and provide a plan forward:

0. i’ve had a lot of very memorable days on the internet over the past 30 years, but this one tops them all. my wife yi and i are unbelievably grateful to… pic.twitter.com/Aeggjc7vwH

— Siqi Chen (@blader) December 26, 2024

The token launched on the Pump.fun platform saw its market capitalization soar to $80 million, driven by community support and the purchase of 50% of the supply by user Waddles_eth. 

This contributed to the token’s viral nature.

Trading volume exceeded $85 million, with 130,000 transactions, making MIRA at one point the most popular small cryptocurrency.

The value of Chen’s tokens rose from $400,000 to over $18 million. 

Since December 26, MIRA lost nearly two-thirds of its value, at one point dropping over 80%. As of now, the market capitalization has fallen to $18.18 million.

“If you made a lot of money, I’m genuinely happy for you. Please consider donating some of the profits to the Hankinson Lab. If you lost a lot, I’m very sorry — but magic internet money is magic internet money,” wrote Chen.

The community responded positively to the initiative.

I think memecoins are dumb and have no future and I don’t touch them. But if I wanted to make a case for them I would now know where to start! ❤️ https://t.co/cIhGZJRtNP

— Jacob Eliosoff (@JaEsf) December 26, 2024

“Memecoins are dumb, they have no future […]. But if I wanted to make a case for them, I now know where to start,” wrote user JaEsf.

Initially supportive of the initiative, waddles_eth stated that the outcome met his expectations.

Hi @blader,

I’m the person who sent you 50% of $MIRA earlier today.

When I saw the story about Mira and her illness, I thought it would be good to buy and send supply to you with the hopes of getting the SOL community behind a good cause on Christmas. I’m really glad that it…

— waddles (@waddles_eth) December 26, 2024

“When I saw the story about Mira and her illness, I thought it would be good to buy and send you a supply of tokens in the hope of rallying the Solana community behind a good cause on Christmas. I’m very glad it turned out the way it did. I hope the money helps find a cure for Mira and everyone else with her disease,” he concluded.

Earlier, CoinGecko identified meme coins as the main trend among traders in 2024.

NBC noted their phenomenon as a return to the “casino era.”