Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)
Author | Ethan (@ethanzhangweb3)_
On April 21, according to the latest news from Catholic News Service Rome, Pope Francis passed away at 7:35 AM today, as announced by Cardinal Farrell, the spokesperson for the Vatican. GMGN data shows that the long-established meme token LUCE surged by 70% in a short time, with a market cap exceeding $15 million, and has now retreated to $13.87 million.
LUCE's price action raises questions: Did the big players know something in advance?
Previously, on April 19, the price of the LUCE token plummeted by 74.54% in a single day, with its market cap rapidly shrinking from tens of millions of dollars. On-chain data shows that an early whale account, which had a floating profit of $5.2 million, failed to sell in time and ultimately incurred a loss of $335,000. On the same day, multiple meme tokens (such as MANEKI, JELLYJELLY, AIDOGE) also experienced flash crashes, sparking widespread discussion. For a period afterward, LUCE's price stabilized around $0.00887 and remained on Binance's Alpha list.
At 4:07 AM on April 19, community contributor Lavanda Garrison stated in the official Telegram community that the Community Takeover Team (CTO) had not yet clarified the reason for the flash crash, suspecting it might be due to a large holder selling off.
On the same day at 4:42 AM, community member @berly_off pointed out that the sell-off times and methods of LUCE, MANEKI, and AIDOGE were very similar, speculating that they might share a market maker; these tokens are listed on major exchanges like OKX or Bybit and may have been sold off in large quantities through market makers. Similar situations had previously occurred with tokens like ACT and HIPPO listed on Binance.
On the same day at 10:47 PM, LUCE's CTO officially posted on X stating that the cause of the price drop was determined to be price manipulation due to large whale sell-offs. Although the token's price suffered a heavy blow, community confidence was not shaken.
Until today, LUCE has experienced a secondary reversal.
The emergence and extinguishment of the Holy Light: When religious symbols are meme-ified
On October 29, 2024, the LUCE token was launched on the Solana chain, inspired by the Vatican's design of a two-dimensional mascot "Luce" (Italian for "light") for the Holy Year in 2025. This creative combination of religious symbols and subculture quickly attracted public attention.
The Luce mascot was created by renowned designer Simone Legno, combining the symbolic meaning of "light" in Latin with youthful elements: holding a pilgrim's staff, boots covered in mud, and eyes shining with hope, aimed at attracting Generation Z's interest in Catholic culture.
The developers (Dev) capitalized on the religious sentiment to create a capital narrative, launching the token with just 2 SOL (about $130) on the Pump.fun platform. The token supply was set at 1 billion with full circulation. The next day, LUCE's market cap skyrocketed to $53 million within 12 hours, with trading volume exceeding $116 million. On-chain data shows that the Dev sold 67.06 million LUCE for 2.73 SOL, making a profit of 0.73 SOL (about $130), but by this time, the market value of the token had already surpassed $2 million, indicating early control of the supply.
In the following period, LUCE quickly became a dual symbol of "religion + wealth." In Telegram groups, the slogan "Faith equals wealth" spread alongside LUCE's anime image, even giving rise to companion tokens like Santino (the puppy) and Holy Mary (the Virgin), forming a more complete narrative matrix. By November 2024, LUCE's price rose from $0.0275 to $0.07196, with a weekly increase of 65.44%, and its market cap once exceeded $77 million, ranking among the top 800 cryptocurrencies by market cap.
This was during a period of high market sentiment; at the same time, the high performance of the Solana chain acted as a booster—its low transaction fees (about $0.00025) and high throughput (65,000 transactions per second) allowed retail investors to trade frequently; the Pump.fun platform simplified the token issuance process, enabling Dev to launch new coins in just a few minutes. Data shows that over 3,000 meme coins are created daily on the Solana chain, with 70% created through Pump.fun, and the average lifespan is only 3 days.
LUCE's relative "longevity" is attributed to its unique religious narrative—the global exposure of the Vatican's Holy Year activities provided it with a continuous topic. Meanwhile, the community was exceptionally active, with members even creating a "pilgrimage roadmap" that linked token price fluctuations to the countdown to the Holy Year, claiming that "when the Holy Light shines in 2025, holders will receive tenfold returns," further boosting LUCE's popularity.
Looking back, the rise and fall of memes typified by LUCE reflect the profit-driven nature of narrative-driven funding, the double-edged effect of community consensus, and the facilitative role of infrastructure.
Fast forward to today, the news of the Pope's death has quickly spawned a new batch of meme coins. In addition to the namesake coin, there are also new coins mocking U.S. Vice President JD Vance as "Pope Killer" capturing heat and liquidity (Note: Vance met with the Pope yesterday and wished him good health on X).
It is lamentable that memes remain memes, without boundaries, capitalizing on all attention.
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