Memecoin Chill Guy Goes Viral on TikTok, Creator Sues for Copyright
Memecoin Just a Chill Guy (CHILLGUY) Goes Viral on TikTok, But the Creator Is Sueing for Intellectual Copyright.
We've seen memes explode on X (former Twitter), and we've seen a Gen Z make millions thanks to rug-pull memecoin. So it's possible that memecoin could go viral on TikTok.
Just a Chill Guy (CHILLGUY) is a meme coin created on Solana's Pump.fun, using a character created by artist Phillip Banks in 2023 as its mascot.
The character is an anthropomorphic dog, wearing a sweatshirt, jeans, and sneakers, with his hands in his pockets. A lively guy with a relaxed expression, just like his name, Chill Guy.
The Chill Guy dog started trending on the video social network TikTok earlier this week, as users started pairing the character with their videos, with the caption that we should "live chill" despite the difficulties in life.
Similar to the "healing" trend in the midst of a busy world, Chill Guy represents the ideal of living calmly, living slowly in the midst of the ups and downs of life.
And that's all memecoin needs! "Viral" across social networks, CHILLGUY also skyrocketed to a market capitalization of over $500 million in less than 1 week.
Solana meme coin $CHILLGUY (@chillguycto) has gone from $0 to over $500 million in market cap in under 6 days 🔥🤯
What is the next big TikTok meme coin? pic.twitter.com/R3iepHTfCp
— BlockNews (@blocknewsdotcom) November 20, 2024
Incredible that Chill Guy started this week and is already worth $450mn.
Tbh from the timeline this felt like the first no-brainer in a while.
Which means I have less than no brain cause I own none. pic.twitter.com/PqEqkvyFcc
— Stats (@punk9059) November 20, 2024
The Kaito AI platform on November 20 also showed that CHILLGUY is one of the most frequently appearing keywords in the current crypto community.
CHILLGUY has the 4th highest mindshare across all of crypto today.
Wow. pic.twitter.com/xTgHdIsJ6z
— Kaito AI 🌊 (@_kaitoai) November 20, 2024
The number of holders is also increasing rapidly. There are currently over 86,000 wallets holding this meme, and nearly 80% of them hold more than $10 - an impressive number for such a purely meme project.
CHILLGUY is now up to 86,000 holders
It picked up 60,000 in the past day
And 80% of the overall holders have $10 or more pic.twitter.com/E66I4C777K
— TylerD 🧙♂️ (@Tyler_Did_It) November 20, 2024
Everyone is happy about the meme's rise, but unfortunately, there is someone who is not happy at all - that is the artist who created the character Chill Guy.
Artist Phillip Banks first denied any connection to the memes that took Chill Guy's image:
"I do not endorse or authorize the use of my artwork for any purpose related to cryptocurrency. Please leave me alone."
Banks then made his X account private so that the community could no longer bother him with messages.
As of today, November 21, the artist announced that Chill Guy's image has been copyrighted. And he will be issuing takedowns on for-profit related things over the next few days.
just putting it out there, chill guy has been copyrighted. like, legally. I'll be issuing takedowns on for-profit related things over the next few days
— philb (@PhillipBankss) November 21, 2024
This means that memes inspired by Chill Guy's image are at risk of being asked to take down the project by copyright holders.
Needless to say, the crypto community was quite upset by this move. Many people think that the author should be happy that his work is known by many people, and that with memecoin projects, they should ask for royalties instead of being so stubborn in demanding that it be deleted.
https://t.co/cfCNXPXjtu pic.twitter.com/XuC9jdViDs
— Bold (@boldleonidas) November 21, 2024
The Chill Guy artist has a once in a lifetime opportunity to change his life by accepting tokens/donations but instead decides to ask Microsoft for an XBOX and Sexxy Redd for a lap dance and attack crypto lmao
— Farokh (@farokh) November 21, 2024
CHILLGUY's price also reacted sharply to this statement.
$Chillguy pic.twitter.com/8sRlpeKU24
— Kakashi (@kkashi_yt) November 21, 2024
However, the Just a Chill Guy project team seems to be negotiating with the artist. The project posted on X calls for the community to donate to Phillip Banks via a wallet address.
We are just 100,000 chill guys who appreciate your art @PhillipBankss
Donation wallet is set up, if you don't want the money we will donate it to a charity of your choice.
AySxUvESXdGTVT6G3psgzWahduxJx8bGkb4Ddip8sADx pic.twitter.com/XmxEN4yIah
— just a chill guy cto (@chillguycto) November 21, 2024
The project said that if Banks did not want to accept the donation, he could ask Just a Chill Guy to donate it to a charity of his choice.
