Viral videos of the Charging Bull bronze statue on Wall Street wearing a knitted hat sent commentators on X, formerly Twitter, into a frenzy and the referenced memecoin Dogwifhat WIF/USD surging 17%.
What Happened: On Friday afternoon, videos appeared of the Charging Bull wearing "a hat," with curious onlookers taking pictures of the unusual sight:
Yes this is real pic.twitter.com/oAKRJv2H1J
— OJC (@OjCrypto) February 2, 2024
Several videos from different angles show people taking pictures with the hat-wearing bull. "THE NORMIES LOVE $WIF," exclaimed one account on social media. According to an unconfirmed report from an observer on site, the bull's appearance was popular with some of the bystanders:
They really put a giant hat on the wall street bull
— KingFUD (@Joedidonato94) February 2, 2024
Can hear the police saying “the hat must come off”
And the degens chanting “hat stays on”
Absolute movie scene - I love this coin pic.twitter.com/uO0x2elM1q
According to a photo of another social media observer, the hat "came off" the bull later in the day. The same observer asked Ansem, a Solana SOL/USD-related influencer to "kindly head over and put it back on." Ansem, a New York City resident, headed to Wall Street, documenting his "sidequest" to "return the hat to the bull" in several tweets. He tweeted a night-time picture of himself and the bull statue - with hat.
It is unknown whether the bull is still wearing the hat at the time of writing.
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Why It Matters: The publicity stunt prompted the related Dogwifhat memecoin to surge 25%.
It is currently trading around $0.25, up 17% over the past 24 hours but down around 50% from its all-time high. $WIF has been tipped to become a long-term rival of established dog-themed memecoins like Dogecoin DOGE/USD and Shiba Inu SHIB/USD.
Commentators on X were amused by the stunt.
"Bullwifhat," tweeted Kraken, a cryptocurrency exchange.
Arthur Hayes, co-founder of BitMex, a cryptocurrency exchange, said, "TradFi better watch out. When we $WIF hat, anything is possible."
Another observer was impressed by "this 'marketing' campaign while WIF is at the lows, down >50%," saying "hat stays on."
In a separate — but possibly related — development, a Twitch streamer and Fortnite player going by the social media handle "issa" claimed to be the originator of the "Dogwifhat" meme. He announced in a tweet that he would be "launching the REAL $dogwifhat, but on Ethereum." Screenshots seem to lend credibility to his claim, although they could not be independently verified.
The $dogwifhat token on Ethereum ETH/USD launched to a high of $30 million in market capitalization and is currently trading around a market cap of $10 million.
What's Next: The marketing stunt can be seen as another sign of cryptocurrency culture seeping into the mainstream, with memecoins at the forefront of it.
Photo: Shutterstock
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