Johnnycoin was mooning. Its market capitalisation had just jumped from $US20,000 to $US100,000 ($32,000 to $158,000). Within 15 minutes, as the price soared, it had breached $US5.8 million. An excitable mob of crypto investors – speculators – wanted us to feed the beast.

“This might be the first time I’ve seen a reporter make a memecoin,” internet trends tracker Nick Kaufman posted on X, one of the social media platforms popular among crypto traders. “Looks like this is getting some traction after being dormant for about 23 hours.”