Parody X account donates $69K to charity after gifted memecoins peak at $1M

A parody X account proclaiming to be a former trader has donated memecoins inspired by him to charity after the tokens he was gifted ballooned to a peak of nearly $1 million in value.

The account, which goes by Richard E. Ptardio, said it received 700 million Richard Ptardio (PTARDIO) tokens on Dec. 17, which were created through the Solana token creator Pump.fun, with a screenshot showing the holdings were worth $53,250 at the time.

Hours later, Ptardio shared another screenshot showing his PTARDIO holdings had gained 1,765% to be worth nearly $1 million.

Ptardio then posted on X that the token’s creator “did so entirely without my knowledge or consent,” and he wanted to distance himself from the project.

“I shall be selling my position and donating the entire proceeds to Save the Children. A far better use of the funds,” they added.

The value of the token had largely dropped, but Ptardio shared that he had donated 313.4 Solana (SOL) worth $69,000 to the charity, which funds education, health and other programs for children worldwide.

Gents, quite the morning. I’ve been inundated by messages, so first thing to say is my utmost apologies if I haven’t been able to get back to you.

From what I gather, someone has rather bizarrely created a Richard Ptardio crypto-currency and sent me 700 million of these… pic.twitter.com/6llzM8Y75J

— Richard E. Ptardio (@RichardPtardio) December 17, 2024

It’s not uncommon for memecoin creators to send a portion of the token supply to the person who inspired it.

The Ptardio account appears as an older man who claims he worked for 35 years on trading desks in London, Hong Kong and New York before starting to commentate on the “weird and wonderful world” of crypto on X in mid-September.

Oh my, 3,000 followers!

Not bad for an old boy learning the ropes in this crypto-currency madhouse.

Cheers to you all—here’s to more gains, more mischief, and the occasional martini-fuelled blunder! pic.twitter.com/sfcscSJ8lc

— Richard E. Ptardio (@RichardPtardio) December 13, 2024

Related: Arizona man allegedly posed as Uber driver to steal $300K in crypto: Report

Ptardio has promoted memecoin investing of late, stating that its “weirdness” drives real action while claiming the “market rewards the bold, not the logical.”

Created only 20 hours ago, PTARDIO rocketed to a peak market cap of around $4.75 million before falling to $258,000, GeckoTerminal data shows.

The total memecoin market cap is currently at $128.2 billion, led by Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIBA) at $57.9 billion and $15.4 billion, according to CoinGecko.

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