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Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has been hit with a cease-and-desist letter from Mark Longo, owner of the website Peanut the Squirrel, over alleged copyright infringement. PNUT, the popular squirrel-inspired memecoin, saw a nearly 10% drop following the news.
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Internet squirrel becomes a sensation in Memecoin
On Sunday, Mark Longo, owner of Peanut the Squirrel, announced that his legal team has begun legal proceedings against cryptocurrency exchange Binance. In a post on X, Longo, also known as “Peanuts Dad,” accused the exchange of using his intellectual property without permission.
The rescued squirrel became an internet sensation after Longo’s videos went viral online, amassing more than half a million followers on Instagram. However, Peanut was seized from Longo’s home along with a rescued raccoon named Fred.
Both animals were euthanized for rabies testing, as there are no approved methods for pre-mortem rabies testing of animals by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. After the news, the audience condemned Peanut’s death, many lawmakers criticized the actions of the authorities.
It also sparked a wave of peanut-inspired memcoins, leading to the creation of the Solana-based memcoin PNUT. Amid the controversy, the token’s popularity quickly increased, reaching $120 million in market cap in less than a week.
Binance announced the listing of memecoin on November 11, opening spot trading on the same day. Following this news, the price of PNUT saw a massive rise, climbing into the top 10 meme coins by market capitalization.
The token generated $1 billion in less than a month, reaching a market cap of $2.27 billion before falling. Over the past month, PNUT has maintained above $1 billion, with the price oscillating between the $1.80-1.00 price range.
Cryptocurrency exchanges have been hit with a cease and desist letter
According to the letter shared by the animal rights activist, Binance allegedly violated “intellectual property rights owned by Mr. Longo.” His legal team argues that the exchange’s use of a copyrighted image of Peanut the Squirrel wearing a cowboy hat and the “identical” trademark of “PEANUT THE SQUIRREL and PNUT” in the listed memecoin violates their clients’ “different copyrights and trademarks.”
The letter asked Binance to respond to the letter by December 31street2024, to verify that the exchange received the message and “stopped all violating activities.” Furthermore, Lungo revealed in his post that this was the first of several cease and desist letters that would be issued.
PNUT faced a 10.2% decline following the news, falling from the $1.17 level to the $1.05 support level within 24 hours. This tracking pushed the token to its lowest levels in more than a month, worrying investors about the memecoin’s performance.
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It should be noted that Longo had previously expressed his displeasure with the PNUT memecoin, accusing the cryptocurrency community of profiting from his late pet. In protest, the animal rights activist launched a meme coin called Justice for Pnut and Fred (JUSTICE), which has faced controversy over insider trading. allegations.
Longo also promoted another meme coin, Justice for Peanut (JFP), in his warning post, which saw a 159% increase post-post before losing all of its recent gains. At the time of writing, PNUT is trading at $1.10, which is a 5.1% decline on the daily time frame.
Featured image from Unsplash.com, chart from TradingView.com
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