The Solana-based meme coin MOODENG, inspired by viral pygmy hippo Moo Deng, has climbed 6.5% over the past 24 hours following news that a man was fined for unlawfully entering the animal’s enclosure. A Thai court found the individual guilty after his arrest in March, ordering him to pay $300 for the breach. The ruling has drawn renewed public attention to the hippo and the token tied to her name.
Video footage shared after the arrest shows a man jumping a fence at Khao Kheow Open Zoo while no staff were present near Moo Deng’s quarters. He appears to be holding a tablet device and approaches the hippo while recording. The animal was not harmed during the incident but was described as being slightly startled.
The episode has prompted the zoo to review its security procedures. Director Narongwit Chodchoy told AFP that staff would receive training on how to respond to intruders. He stated that the zoo had learned from the incident and would not allow a similar situation to occur again, either with Moo Deng or any other animal on the premises.
Moo Deng first gained widespread attention in early 2024, becoming a social media sensation due to her playful behavior. A meme coin celebrating the hippo was subsequently launched through token launchpad Pump.fun and quickly gained traction among crypto traders. By November of that year, the token had reached an all-time high of approximately $0.68, representing a market capitalization of around $680 million.
Although that peak proved short-lived, MOODENG maintained relevance long enough to secure listings on major centralized exchanges. A listing on Coinbase in December of that year pushed the token’s price up by 80%. The coin has since entered a prolonged decline, recently trading near $0.048, which equates to a market cap of roughly $48 million — down nearly 93% from its high. Meme coins, which are typically based on popular culture references and carry no inherent utility, often receive temporary price boosts from mainstream media coverage, as seen when the zoo’s announcement of a birthday party for Moo Deng last July sent the token up around 33%.
The latest price movement is also occurring against a backdrop of broader improvement in crypto markets. A conditional ceasefire announced late Tuesday involving Iran eased geopolitical tensions that had been flagged by U.S. President Donald Trump as a potential flashpoint. Following that development, crypto assets broadly rallied, with Bitcoin and Ethereum gaining 4.2% and 6.3% respectively over the past day. Meme coins as a category have lagged behind those gains, rising just 3.6% in the same period according to CoinGecko.
Originally reported by Decrypt.
