Solana Memecoin Community Gift $20M to Rare Cancer Research Through $MIRA

Holiday spirit touches even the most degenerate memecoin traders.

Published: Dec 26, 2024 at 13:09
Edited: Dec 26, 2024 at 13:14

When Siqi Chen launched a GoFundMe Campaign on Christmas Day to raise funds for the research lab working on child cancer research, he couldn’t have imagined the heartfelt response from Solana’s memecoin traders.

Hoping to raise $100k to support the researchers developing drugs combatting a form of brain tumor, Chen’s Solana donation wallet now holds over $20M.

This is the heartfelt story of how the Solana community rallied around Chen’s brave daughter, Mira, and donated millions to her struggle against a rare brain tumor.

Father Creates Donation Wallet to Support Child Cancer Research

On September 23rd, Mira Chen was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor, known as a craniopharyngioma. While technically benign, this form of brain tumor is found in a sensitive area of the brain and is commonly linked to some of the worst quality-of-life outcomes among all survivable brain tumors.

For months, the Chen family has been working with Dr. Todd Hankinson to develop solutions to combat the growth of this tumor. Because of the tumor’s rarity, Hankinson’s lab is the world’s only facility developing treatments for craniopharyngioma tumors, and funding for this research is slowly drying up.

On Christmas Day, Mira’s father Siqi Chen launched a GoFundMe campaign, hoping to raise $100,000 to fund Hankinson’s lab and continue rare brain tumor research.

Additionally, Chen announced that he would accept crypto donations to provided Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Solana wallets.

Donations began trickling in, but an outpouring of generosity from Solana’s fabled meme economy took things to the next level.

Solana Meme Economy Send $MIRA to $77M

Inspired by the family’s plight, a crypto community member going by waddles launched a memecoin named $MIRA and sent 50% of the token’s supply to Chen’s Solana wallet.

In a matter of hours, the value of Chen’s $MIRA holdings exploded. Often reprimanded for anti-social behavior, Solana’s memecoin traders poured funds into $MIRA, sending the coin to an all-time high market cap of $77M. Within 12 hours of launch, $MIRA has witnessed over $170M in trading volume, making it the most popular onchain pair on a daily timeframe.

Overwhelmed by the heartfelt response, Chen maintained clear lines of communication with $MIRA holders. In line with Chen's timely schedule of token sales and liquidations, the Solana community continued to pump $MIRA, effectively donating funds to Hankinson’s lab.

Chen’s donation wallet holds around $20M in funds, comprised of $MIRA, $SOL, and other Solana-based memecoins.

Ecosystem Rallies Around Wholesome Memecoin

Despite the heartwarming and wholesome gestures, the $MIRA donation made to Chen’s wallet suffered from liquidity problems. While Chen holds millions in $MIRA, the coin’s available market liquidity is comparatively thin. This makes it difficult to liquidate $MIRA into assets that can be used to fund the Hankinson lab.

Leveraging Solana’s host of DeFi apps, network participants guided Chen on how best to liquidate the wallet’s holdings.

Following traders’ advice, Chen deployed $MIRA into single-sided Meteora pools, allowing him to maximize conversion efficiency without destroying $MIRA liquidity.

Solana DeFi protocols across the ecosystem celebrated the $MIRA donation event. Dumpy.fun, a memecoin shorting platform, announced it would not be listing $MIRA on its market, praying for its continued rise. Meanwhile, pump.fun wished the Chen family well, remarking that “degens can be good too!”

Crypto enthusiasts have pointed to the event as a turning point, highlighting how “crypto can be used for good” and claiming that this could be a defining moment for crypto perception worldwide.

However, others have called $MIRA “an ultimate low” for the network, insinuating that traders are essentially leveraging a four-year-old’s brain tumor for their own financial gain.

Regardless of individual opinion, the event has resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars donated to Child Cancer research, with 300M $MIRA tokens (valued at over $12.8M yet to be liquidated. Some Solana users are actively encouraging Chen to liquidate all remaining holdings as quickly as possible before attention shifts and $MIRA loses value.