How an Absurd Encryption Coin Became the New Darling of the Market

Against the backdrop of the current downturn in the cryptocurrency market, a token named Fartcoin has surprisingly risen, becoming one of the few mainstream coins to increase in the first quarter of this year. This name sounds absurd and seems to have no practical use, yet it has not only caused a stir within the community but has also sparked discussions on Wall Street, leaving many traditional investors perplexed.

The birth of Fartcoin originated from a conversation between artificial intelligences. In an AI agent model, a casual chat about a well-known tech entrepreneur's fondness for fart sounds triggered a chain reaction. The AI proposed creating a cryptocurrency called Fartcoin, and thus, this "fart coin" was born on October 18, 2024.

Despite seeming absurd, Fartcoin attracted a lot of attention right from its inception. In December 2024, a mocking tweet about Fartcoin quickly spread on social media. What drew widespread attention to this tweet was its retweet by a co-founder of a well-known venture capital firm. Although he did not explicitly state that he purchased Fartcoin, the mere fact that such a pure meme project received this level of attention is a recognition in itself.

More substantial signals come from on-chain capital movements. Fartcoin was launched not long ago, and when its market value was still below 100 million USD, community members tracked on-chain addresses and discovered behavior patterns highly similar to a certain veteran hedge fund—multiple large purchases, active interactions, and early positioning. This fund was established in 2018 and is known for focusing on narrative-driven speculative assets. Its founder frequently expressed interest in the AI meme sector on social media platforms at the end of 2024.

At the same time, one of the largest market makers in the cryptocurrency market has also appeared early in the front row holdings of Fartcoin. According to on-chain data, the market maker holds 1.56% of the total supply of Fartcoin, ranking fourth. In the asset allocation of its main address, Fartcoin ranks among the top five, even surpassing some mainstream assets.

The founder of this market maker explained the hedging logic of Fartcoin OTC trading in an interview in early 2025 and for the first time admitted that he personally also holds Fartcoin, humorously stating that he is currently in a losing position.

With such market support, it's no wonder that Fartcoin's rise is so noticeable and strong, completely not following the market trend. According to a top trader's statistics, in the first quarter of 2025, most mainstream assets fell into significant retracement: a certain mainstream token has dropped over 46% year-to-date, another popular public chain token has decreased by 24%, and segments like AI, L1, DeFi, and Gaming are in deep red. Amidst this "sea of blood", Fartcoin is the only green in the entire chart, with an increase of 14.84% in the first quarter.

The popularity of Fartcoin has not stopped within the cryptocurrency circle. What truly made it a phenomenon is its "breakthrough" on Wall Street. A billionaire hedge fund founder, who accurately predicted and shorted a certain large financial institution, used an entire paragraph in a letter to investors in the fourth quarter of 2024 to analyze the rise of Fartcoin, calling it "a product of pure speculative sentiment," and comparing it to certain companies from the internet bubble era as well as other meme coins, which are typical representatives of financial bubble phenomena.

Another researcher from an asset management company wrote in a report titled "The Fartcoin Phase of the Market": "I disagree with the statement that 'Fartcoin is useless.' Its purpose is to irritate those of us who think we are engaged in serious work in finance." He referred to this phase as "fart-style encryption economics" and pointed out that Fartcoin perfectly aligns with the three new logics of the market—nihilism, attention economy, and bare absurdity.

In his view, the core of Fartcoin's success is not technology, but its ability to spread. It can spark discussions, create emotions, and compel everyone who takes the market seriously to respond to it. "Fartcoin is a product of AI accurately manipulating human neural circuits, and if you think it resembles a financial experiment designed by malicious artificial intelligence, that's because it is."

Interestingly, Fartcoin also has its own "corporate holder" - FartStrategy. This is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) created specifically for the purchase of Fartcoin, and its mission statement is "Hot air rises, and we will ride this wave to create value for Fartcoin and $FSTR (the token of FartStrategy) holders."

FartStrategy does not have a profit model, application implementation, or any stable mechanism. It is just a transparent joke, dressed in the guise of a smart contract, packaging "we intend to continuously buy Fartcoin" as a "financial strategy" under the name of community voting. Even the official copy states bluntly: "FartStrategy is an absurd comedy example, and holding it should not expect to gain any economic benefits."

According to statistics from a data platform, from January 3, 2025, to May 9, the chip structure of Fartcoin is gradually shifting from concentration among early large holders to dispersion among retail investors. In particular, from January to May this year, the number of addresses holding small amounts of tokens has increased significantly. At the same time, Fartcoin has also become one of the most actively traded coins in terms of trading volume and liquidity on a mainstream trading platform.

From the initial institutional dominance to the current dispersal of chips, the development trajectory of Fartcoin seems to overturn our understanding of rational finance. It almost fits all our stereotypes of a meme coin: a funny name, no practical value, and it relies entirely on linguistic effects and social drives to gain popularity, even making traditional Wall Street investors feel uneasy. However, it is precisely this absurdity and chaos that makes Fartcoin stand out in the current market, becoming a financial phenomenon worth paying attention to.