Peanut the Squirrel owner takes legal action against Binance for listing PNUT, boosting his JFP token by 200%

Mark Longo’s legal team sent cease and desist letters to Binance after adding the PNUT meme coin to their listing. Longo’s lawyers claimed that Binance violated his intellectual property rights through the token.

Mark Longo, the principal owner of Squirrel Nuts (PNUT), announced in a recent post that he plans to issue more cease and desist letters following the letter his lawyers sent to Binance, citing “unauthorized use of my intellectual property.”

Around the time Longo announced that he would be taking legal action against Binance, Longo’s own token JUSTICE (for Pnut and Fred) rose over 200%, according to DEX Screener. At the time of this writing, Longo’s JUSTICE token, or JFP, is up 32% in the last 24 hours. It currently has a market cap of $361,000 and liquidity of $108,000.

In comparison, PNUT is down 6.5% in the last 24 hours of trading, according to crypto.news data. Despite this, it still maintains a market value of over $1 billion.

Price chart of Mark Longo’s JUSTICE token over the last 24 hours of trading, December 16, 2024 | Source: DEX Screener.

In the letter included in his post, Longo’s legal team stated that he has “exclusive rights” under U.S. copyright laws to the image and name featured in the PNUT token. The icon shows a photo of the deceased Peanut wearing a cowboy hat, taken from one of Longo’s social media accounts.

“This is the first of many cease and desist letters that will be issued. I am committed to protecting my creative work and sending a clear message: Unauthorized use of my IP address will not be tolerated,” Longo wrote on the X account @Squirrel_Dad12.

Coinbase recently announced its asset roadmap, which includes the PNUT meme token, on December 11. Time will tell whether the major exchange will continue to list PNUT after Longo’s warning to Binance.

Binance listed the Peanut the Squirrel meme coin on its platform at 10:00 UTC on November 11 last month. Shortly thereafter, PNUT witnessed its “god candle” chart peak moment as the Binance listing sent its price soaring up to 478%.

Following the listing, Longo’s lawyers asked Binance to stop using the infringing photo of Longo, as well as the trademarked Peanut the Squirrel, on its exchange platform.

“You are informed that the unlawful copying of the PNUT Image in the advertising, distribution and sale of cryptocurrency violates our client’s exclusive copyrights,” Sara M. Dorchak wrote in a letter addressed to Attorney of Record Sandra Epp Ryan. Binance Holdings Limited.

In the letter, Dorchak explained that Longo’s team had applied to register the copyrighted intellectual property with the United States Copyright office. Therefore, once officially registered, use of the Peanut image on the Binance platform would be a violation of the US Copyright Law, 17 USC.

This isn’t the first time Longo has threatened legal action against parties holding PNUT for copyright infringement. On November 25, she accused the PNUT community of illegally capitalizing on her pet’s story without involving her and her non-profit initiatives.

So Longo launched his own token, which he called JUSTICE (for Pnut and Fred), as a way to gain control over his narrative and condemn the PNUT community.

Mark Longo saved Peanut from a car accident and shared his experiences on an Instagram account dedicated to Peanut and the raccoon named Fred. However, the New York City Department of Environmental Conservation later seized the animals from Longo’s home following anonymous complaints.

The PNUT token was created in honor of Peanut after the squirrel died when he was euthanized by authorities.