Memecoin Nietzschean Penguin (PENGUIN) rallied 564% after the Trump administration posted on social media, according to market data.
The White House published an AI‑generated image showing Mr. Trump and a penguin walking hand in hand through a snowy landscape, with the penguin holding a US flag and mountains bearing the Greenland flag ahead. Before the post, the market capitalization of PENGUIN stood at about $387,000. Within 24 hours, trading volume surged to $244 million. The token peaked at $0.16 and later fell to $0.12.
PENGUIN was launched on January 16, 2026. The token references a meme from a mid‑2000s documentary in which a lone penguin departs its flock and heads toward distant mountains. The viral post from the administration triggered the speculative buying typical of memecoin markets.
January 2026 marked a recovery for the memecoin sector. Total sector market capitalization rose 23%, from $38 billion in December to $47 billion in January. Mentions of memecoins in social media also increased markedly, signaling renewed retail interest.
Market participants warn that memecoins remain highly volatile and speculative. In 2025, some 11.6 million crypto tokens ceased to exist, largely because of an oversupply of memecoins on platforms such as Pump.fun. In a recent example of the sector’s fragility, the meme coin, WhiteWhale, plunged 60% in five minutes after its largest holder sold about $1.3 million worth of tokens in a single transaction. These episodes underscore the high risk of investing in memecoins.
