A long-running dispute between the team behind a popular meme coin and its cartoon creator seemed to have a happy ending late Thursday. But it quickly turned out that the supposed agreement was fake news spread by a hacker. This led to a predictable drop in the token's value.
On Thursday evening, Philip Banks, the creator of the beloved "Just a Chill Guy" meme, announced on his X (formerly Twitter) account that he had officially given the green light for the Solana-based CHILLGUY meme coin to use his intellectual property.
“Some members of the CHILLGUY token reached out to me, and we had a long discussion,” he wrote. “They have been really supportive and nice, and we reached an agreement. I’ve decided to provide licensing and IP rights to the CHILLGUY token and team.”
Previously, Banks had threatened legal action against the creators of the token, which had leveraged his character to reach a value of over $400 million.
Unsurprisingly, news of the supposed peace agreement sent CHILLGUY’s value soaring by more than 22%. In the past, similar licensing deals have led to significant price increases. After all, no one wants a trademark infringement lawsuit hanging over their project.
However, it soon became clear that the truce was a hoax. Banks' account posted multiple updates, claiming that he had set up a Solana wallet and was launching his own “official” Chill Guy meme coin through Pump.fun.
This raised eyebrows among traders. The official CHILLGUY meme coin Twitter account then chimed in, stating that the team was “taken by surprise” by Banks’ announcement, further suggesting that the deal wasn’t real.
As quickly as CHILLGUY had risen, it fell dramatically. Within just 30 minutes, the token plummeted over 25% to $0.33. It has since dropped another 10%, falling below $0.30 as of the latest updates.
In a strange twist, as the token's value began to tank, Banks' Twitter account started posting anti-crypto statements condemning the hack. This might have been an attempt to profit from both longing and shorting the asset.
“Chill Guy’s image and rights will NEVER be involved in crypto,” one post declared. “Spreading hate, attacking my family, committing crimes to profit off my art… After today’s events, I’m going to be sending takedown requests and preparing to battle these crypto platforms legally.”
However, Banks later clarified in an Instagram post that those messages were not authored by him. They have since been deleted along with the other fraudulent posts.
In the world of cryptocurrency, some things never change. Yet, it seems hackers are working on their acting skills.