MoriCoin, the official memecoin of a Russian darknet drug market, launched today on Solana.
The unconventional token launch was picked up by cybersecurity threat researcher Vladimir S., who goes by the handle @officer_cia on X.
He said, “The onion-based drug market… appears to be operational based on numerous reviews.”
Read more: Darkweb drugs site Incognito Market threatens to out users who paid in crypto
The marketplace’s owner and namesake, the pseudonymous Professor Moriarty, also runs a Russian-language YouTube channel with over 3.2 million followers.
The channel’s videos focus on topics including criminal organizations and law enforcement tactics, as well as the illicit drug trade, with titles such as “WHAT RUSSIA GETS HIGH ON: 1980-2023.”
Traditional marketing strategies are unsurprisingly limited for illicit drug markets. The project’s X account suggests that the token is a marketing play to capitalize on the brand’s YouTube following and “expand… all over X platform.”
MoriForum, a Telegram community of over 35,000 members, includes channels teasing the token’s launch, even including detailed instructions for absolute beginners (a wallet “is like a banking app, but for crypto”).
Apparently taking a leaf out of Donald Trump’s playbook, top MoriCoin holders are promised “special rewards” and direct access to the “Professor” via a “whale chat.”
Discussion threads filled with cautious speculation over the legitimacy of a number of recently-launched copycat coins before the official token address was announced.
In the minutes following the launch, $MORI’s market cap peaked at approximately $50 million, before dropping by around half.
Read more: UK street gang launders drug funds with memecoin, report
At the time of writing, some 7,000 holders are battling it out to trade around $600,000 of liquidity on Solana’s Jupiter exchange.
Despite the recent passing of the GENIUS stablecoin bill and US Army parades sponsored by Coinbase, crypto’s wild west phase is clearly far from over.
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