“Shitcoin” Rises Against the Trend: Analyzing the Emergence of Outliers in the Crypto Assets Market

Imagine this: a cryptocurrency with an absurd name and completely lacking in application scenarios surprisingly became one of the few mainstream coins to rise against the trend in the first quarter of this year. It even successfully broke into Wall Street, catching many traditional investors off guard.

Heavyweights in the tech investment circle are sharing related content, a well-known hedge fund has been accused of early large-scale purchases through on-chain activities, and top market makers are listing it as a core asset allocation. The founder of the market maker has also publicly acknowledged holding this coin.

This sensational token is Fartcoin (“屁币”), which comes from the same creative source as GOAT.

The birth of Fartcoin originated from a conversation between artificial intelligences. In an AI agent model called “terminal of truths”, a project funded by a tech tycoon sparked a chain reaction with a casual chat about a certain well-known entrepreneur “liking the sound of farting”.

AI Suggestion: “How about we launch a coin called Fartcoin?” And so, this “Fartcoin” was born on October 18, 2024.

Innate “Golden Finger”

Fartcoin, upon its launch, was like a protagonist with cheats in a novel, attracting the attention, adoration, and investment of numerous Crypto Assets enthusiasts.

On December 13, 2024, a tweet mocking Fartcoin spread rapidly on social media. What made this content go viral was not how stunning the content was, but the identity of the person retweeting it—a co-founder of a top venture capital firm.

Although this investment mogul did not explicitly state that he purchased Fartcoin, the fact that one of the most influential figures in the Silicon Valley venture capital community publicly forwarded such a thoroughly meme project constitutes a certain “capital endorsement” and “breaking the circle signal” in itself.

More substantive signals come from on-chain capital flows. Shortly after Fartcoin was launched, when its market value had not yet reached 100 million USD, community members tracked on-chain addresses and discovered a behavior pattern highly similar to that of senior hedge funds—multiple large purchases, active interactions, and early positioning.

Founded in 2018, this hedge fund is a compliant registered all-weather strategy fund established by a group of seasoned professionals in the Crypto Assets field, known for focusing on narrative-driven assets. Its founders frequently expressed interest in the AI meme track on social platforms by the end of 2024, and even retweeted a post on December 13 about “whether the fund holds $30 million in Fartcoin.” Although there was no direct response, it was widely interpreted by the community as a “de facto entry.”

At the same time, cross-validation of data on multiple chains indicates that several strategy pool addresses are very similar to this fund, having frequently engaged in buying, locking, and liquidity provisioning operations during the early stages of Fartcoin.

In addition, a more active role is that of a top market maker in the crypto market, which appeared early on the main holding list of Fartcoin. On-chain data shows that this 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.

Multiple accounts that are highly associated with the main address of this market maker were also active simultaneously during the early launch of Fartcoin—smooth and natural operations from position building, market making to arbitrage.

It is worth mentioning that in early 2025, the founder of this market maker explained the hedging logic of Fartcoin over-the-counter trading in a podcast interview, and for the first time admitted that he personally also holds Fartcoin, jokingly saying: “I’m just currently in a stuck position.”

With the support of top market makers, it’s no wonder that the rise of Fartcoin is so noticeable and strong, completely deviating from the overall market trend.

According to data statistics from a well-known trader, in the first quarter of 2025, most mainstream assets fell into a significant correction: ETH has dropped by more than 46% year-to-date, SOL has fallen by 24%, and segments such as AI, L1, DeFi, and Gaming are all deep in red, making the situation dire. However, amidst this sea of blood, Fartcoin is the only green on the entire chart, with an increase of 14.84% in the first quarter. Against the backdrop of many assets performing poorly, Fartcoin stands out remarkably.

Not only did it rise against the trend during the downturn, but after the market warmed up in May, Fartcoin’s increase still outperformed mainstream assets, rising over 50%, far exceeding Bitcoin’s 23% increase during the same period.

Wall Street’s Embarrassment Facing “Shitcoin”

The influence of Fartcoin is not limited to the crypto circle. What truly makes it a phenomenon is not only the逆势上涨 of its price but also the震动 it has caused on Wall Street.

“We are currently in the Fartcoin phase of the market cycle.”—This statement comes from a billionaire who accurately predicted and shorted Lehman Brothers, the founder of a well-known hedge fund. In a letter to investors in the fourth quarter of 2024, this investment master used an entire paragraph to analyze the rise of Fartcoin, calling it “a product of pure speculative sentiment,” and listed it alongside Pets.com and Dogecoin as typical examples of financial bubble phenomena.

It is worth noting that this investor is a supporter of the Democratic Party and has established short positions on two leveraged ETFs related to the companies that hold the most Bitcoin.

In his view, Fartcoin, which is itself a meme coin with a mocking connotation, has no intrinsic value, no real-world applications, and lacks any substitutability. He even stated that rather than investing in Fartcoin, he would prefer to buy an abstract painting, as at least that painting “is something people would still hang on the wall.”

But precisely because he strongly opposed it in his letter, it made Fartcoin even more eye-catching. When a seasoned financial professional known for “rationality” and “value” starts to make lengthy comments about a meme coin, you know this is no ordinary speculative coin.

A researcher from another asset management company expressed it more directly. In a report titled “The Fartcoin Phase of the Market,” he wrote: “I disagree with the statement that ‘Fartcoin is useless.’ Its purpose is to annoy us finance people who think we are doing serious work.” The text is filled with anxiety about the irrationality of the market. He referred to this phase as “farting-style crypto economics,” and pointed out that Fartcoin precisely hits the three new logics of the market—nihilism, attention economy, and bare absurdity.

In his eyes, the core of Fartcoin’s success lies not in technology, but in its ability to spread. It can spark discussions, create emotions, and compel everyone who takes the market seriously to respond to it. Even if you only criticize it, you have already fallen into its trap. “Fartcoin is a product of AI precisely controlling human thought; if you think it resembles a financial experiment designed by malicious artificial intelligence, that is because it indeed is.”

Compared to the anger and restraint of the first two, the attitude of the other billionaire is much more relaxed. The co-founder of a large asset management company and a rational representative of traditional finance, who has always been known for his calmness and model analysis, suddenly let go of the “rational person hypothesis” when facing Fartcoin. He wrote on social media: "Ironically, Fartcoin is the only thing I don’t suspect. In the context of the time, it was a mild poke at the absurdity of the market as a whole.

In this mockery, Fartcoin does not disguise itself as having “fundamentals” like other assets. It never claims to be some kind of innovative infrastructure, nor does it peddle any technical narrative, but instead presents itself nakedly, openly admitting that it is merely an “emotional product.” On the very day he made this statement, Fartcoin soared again, with its increase rapidly climbing.

Interestingly, this investment master made another comment a few months later: “The performance of Fartcoin today and over the past month has made me feel that I may need to further distance myself from the theory taught to me by my mentor.” (His mentor is the founder of the “Efficient Market Hypothesis”)

Does Fartcoin also have its own “micro strategy”?

The token named “Fart” not only maintains a market value of over one billion dollars, but it also has its own corporate supporter, just like Bitcoin—FartStrategy.

When even the memes can replicate the model of “buy, buy again, use holdings to support market value,” this absurd drama truly completes the final piece of the puzzle.

A renowned financial columnist did not miss this spectacle. This former investment banking elite’s articles are regarded as “must-reads” by the entire elite circle on Wall Street, from regulatory agencies to fund managers.

In his 2025 column “The Crypto Perpetual Motion Machine,” he dedicated a section to analyzing FartStrategy, calling it “the pinnacle artwork of financial nihilism.” The article begins with: “If you can package and sell air, then why can’t it be Fartcoin?”

The operational logic of FartStrategy is extremely simple, and one could even say it’s unabashed: this is a DAO specifically created for purchasing Fartcoin, with the mission statement “Hot air rises, and we will ride this wave to create value for Fartcoin and $FSTR (the token of FartStrategy) holders.”

Does this sound a bit like - “We don’t create content, we are just the carriers of memes”?

It has no profit model, no application landing, and no stability mechanism. It is just a transparent joke, disguised in the clothing of smart contracts, packaging “we intend to continue buying Fartcoin” in the name of community voting as a kind of “financial strategy”. Even the official copy states bluntly: “FartStrategy is an absurd comedic example, holding it should not expect any economic benefits.”

The columnist likened it to a mirror derivative of a publicly listed company—the latter continually raises funds to buy Bitcoin, increasing the company’s valuation; while the former relies on the interaction between memes and DAOs to self-pressurize hot air, forming a “Fartcoin flywheel,” a financial perpetual motion machine driven continuously by emotions. He described it as “a leveraged container with hot air as its asset”; when its market value exceeds the actual value of the Fartcoin held, it sells $FSTR to buy more Fartcoin, completing a meme-level closed loop.

Fartcoin was born from absurdity and survives in chaos.

According to information from the data analysis platform, from January 3, 2025, to May 9, 2025, the chip structure of Fartcoin is gradually shifting from concentration among early large holders to dispersion among retail investors.

Especially from January to May of this year, the growth rate of addresses holding less than $1000 began to rise. At the same time, Fartcoin has also become one of the most actively traded coins in terms of trading volume and liquidity in the new coin area of a certain trading platform.

From the initial institutional dominance to the current chip dispersion, all seemingly rational financial narratives ultimately reveal their true nature in the toilet humor of Fartcoin.

Fartcoin nearly fits all of our stereotypes about meme coins: a funny name, a lack of practical value, completely relying on the viral effect and social drive to gain popularity, even making traditional investors on Wall Street feel uncomfortable.

It reveals the absurdity of the current market in an almost self-deprecating manner, while also reflecting the phenomenon of investments driven purely by emotions in the Crypto Assets field. In this uncertain market, sometimes the most absurd things become the most honest existence.