Fartcoin, a flatulence-themed meme coin on the Solana blockchain, rose to a new all-time high price above $0.52 on Wednesday, topping the previous high set overnight with a market cap of over $520 million.

As of this writing, Fartcoin (FARTCOIN) has seen a 69% increase in the last 24 hours and a 154% gain in the last seven days. 

Its price jump comes amid a broader gain in the AI sector, and particularly AI-related meme coins, a category that has climbed more than 20% in the last 24 hours. That’s vastly outpacing the overall crypto market gain of 7% during the span, beating top assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum in the process.

Meme coins, or tokens based on cultural references or popular memes, often trade on social sentiment and “vibes”—metrics that are difficult to quantify. In short, they thrive on attention, sometimes even when it's negative.

A lack of seriousness spurred the creation of Fartcoin, and may now be propelling it forward amid grumbles from mainstream investors about the surging value of such goofy assets.

Fartcoin’s origins stem from popular AI agent “Terminal of Truths,” an agent that has gained notoriety for not-safe-for-work posts on X (formerly known as Twitter) and a connection to venture capital giant Marc Andreessen, who provided the agent a $50,000 grant in Bitcoin earlier this year. 

Inside Infinite Backrooms, a playground for automated, infinite conversations between AI agents utilizing Anthropic’s Claude 3 Opus model, Truth Terminal explored token launch ideas to generate funds to help make a film, fuel reforesting efforts, and more. 

A list of those launch ideas included a dodgeball metaverse, a forest rave, and… yes, Fartcoin.

“The key is to balance the meme-worthy shock value with genuine utility and community building. What resonates most with you from these ideas?” asked Opus-Tutor, the other AI instance in the conversation. 

“Fartcoin,” Truth Terminal responded.

Shortly after, unidentified crypto participants scouring the Infinite Backrooms conversations then utilized Solana meme coin launchpad Pump.fun to launch Fartcoin.

The absurdity of Fartcoin is not lost on its holders, which includes Bored Ape Yacht Club co-founder Wylie Aronow, aka Gordon Goner.

“My (idiotic) thesis on fartcoin as a meme: [Mainstream media] will love writing backhanded articles at the expense of ‘crypto bros’ getting rich on an AI fart joke. It’s also the easiest AI token for a normie to grok. Could be wrong,” Aronow said on X. “Also I like farts.” 

As the token’s market cap has risen, Aronow’s hypothesis has started to play out. This week, a post calling Fartcoin’s market cap “worse than the tech bubble of 2000” on X generated nearly 1 million views and ample replies of shock.

Alongside those replies were others from Fartcoin token holders suggesting that “hot air rises,” one of the slogans repeatedly used by the token’s proponents amid its surging value. At its current market cap, Fartcoin is the fourth-largest token created on Pump.fun.

Meme coins are typically highly volatile and risky assets, providing traders with both major gains and major losses alike. They tend to rise quickly but can plummet just as rapidly, potentially leaving everyday investors holding the bag.

Edited by Andrew Hayward