Memecoins once again seized on a viral news moment, with Dolly Parton becoming their latest target. After news broke Tuesday that the beloved country singer had died, users rushed to popular memecoin platforms to launch tokens, known for being driven by online trends and hype rather than underlying value, in her name. What followed was very un-Dolly-like behavior on the part of the coin issuers. They pulled a classic “rug pull”: After promoting the tokens until they attracted enough buyers, insiders sold off their holdings near the peak, sending their prices tumbling.
Most of the coins used some variation of Parton’s name, including “Dolly,” “DollyParton,” and “RIP Dolly Parton.” They launched either on Pump.fun, the popular Solana memecoin platform, or on Robinhood Chain, a newer blockchain network. “Dolly” was among the best performers, reaching a market capitalization of nearly $480,000 within the first few hours of its launch before plummeting below $180,000.
The recent token launches follow a familiar pattern in which memecoin creators seize on the deaths of high-profile figures. Similar campaigns emerged after the deaths of former One Direction member Liam Payne, conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, and Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne.
They also resurfaced a trend that became one of crypto’s defining narratives in 2025. That’s when speculative capital poured into these internet-driven tokens, especially on Solana. Platforms like Pump.fun made it inexpensive and simple for almost anyone to create a token, transforming memecoin trading into a high-speed attention market where traders sought extreme short-term returns. The overwhelming majority of such launches achieve little economic value and almost all of them collapse to near zero.
Public skepticism of memecoins increased as high-profile figures began releasing their own memecoins. Two days before taking office in January 2025, President Donald Trump launched the TRUMP token, which briefly reached a market capitalization of roughly $8.7 billion before losing more than 90% of its value, according to the crypto analytics provider CoinGecko.
First Lady Melania Trump followed with the MELANIA token two days later, reaching a high of almost $9. It now trades at 11 cents.
In February 2025, Argentine President Javier Milei publicly endorsed the LIBRA memecoin, which surged in value before collapsing within hours. A federal judge subsequently opened an investigation into fraud allegations, though Milei has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
Despite memecoins’ troubled reputation, the sector remains a focus for parts of the crypto industry. In July, Robinhood launched Robinhood Chain as a network aimed at tokenized stocks and other real-world assets, but memecoins quickly became among its most actively traded assets. Within days, Cash Cat, a token named after an early possible name for the brokerage, reached a market capitalization of roughly $150 million, according to CoinGecko.