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.”