Dad pledges $1 million to cancer research after charity meme coin soars to $80 million market cap

The father of a girl battling a rare brain tumor has pledged $1 million to fund research into her condition after an unexpected cryptocurrency fundraiser.

Siqi Chen, CEO of venture funding platform Runway, announced the donation after the charity’s meme coin, named after his daughter Mira, soared to a market cap of $80 million .

Chen’s commitment

The girl’s diagnosis inspired Chen to post a petition on X earlier this week, asking for donations to support the Hankinson Lab at the University of Colorado, a research center specializing in rare brain tumors. The post gained widespread attention, prompting a Pump.fun user to create the MIRA token.

The cryptocurrency gained immediate traction and reached an all-time high market capitalization of $80 million. One notable supporter, an X user named Waddles, bought and transferred 50% of MIRA’s supply to Chen, instantly making his stake in the coin worth millions.

Waddles shared his motivation at X, explaining that he hopes to bring the Solana community together to support a meaningful cause during the holiday season. He also expressed his happiness that things had worked out the way they did and hoped that the funds would contribute to finding a cure for people with this disease.

In a December 26 update, Chen expressed his gratitude, calling it “the most memorable day on the Internet” in his 30 years online. The tech executive then outlined a strategy to liquidate the funds responsibly. He revealed his plans to sell $1,000 of MIRA every 10 minutes indefinitely, promising to give him 24 hours notice if the schedule changed.

“100% of every penny we’ve made from this, across all kitkat/meme coins, including LP fees, will go directly to rare disease research,” Chen said.

While some merchants benefited from the coin without contributing to charity, he highlighted the overall positive impact of the initiative. Initially aiming to raise $200,000, he confirmed they would significantly exceed that goal and ultimately donate at least $1 million to rare disease research.

The coin of the charity meme

Since the announcement, MIRA has declined in value, stabilizing at a market cap of approximately $14 million at the time of writing. Another token, “kitkat,” named after the young woman’s dog, briefly reached a market cap of $3 million before falling to about $111,000.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin previously highlighted charity-driven meme coins as a “positive-sum” innovation within the meme coin trend.

In a March blog post, he expressed optimism that these tokens could evolve into meaningful projects, benefiting the crypto ecosystem and society while challenging the perception that these assets are useless or perpetuate harmful stereotypes.

SPECIAL OFFER (Sponsored) Binance Free $600 (Exclusive to CryptoPotato): Use this link to register a new account and receive an exclusive welcome offer of $600 to Binance (full details).

LIMITED OFFER for CryptoPotato Readers on Bybit – Use this link to register and open a FREE $500 position with any currency!