FOLLOW THE RECEIPTS
Meme investigations
15 original articles · News, research & explainers
Start with the right question.
Meme Autopsy is our historical case-file series. Each installment asks what survives when the promotion fades: a contract, a distribution record, an official order, a transaction or a documented community effort. The cases cover very different outcomes. Some are stories of collective creativity; others concern alleged misconduct, enforcement or a market that buyers could not exit. A shared label does not make those outcomes equivalent. Read each case with its own dates and evidence limits. An indictment contains allegations, a regulatory settlement has a particular scope and a dismissed lawsuit establishes less than a forensic audit would. Our question is narrower than deciding whether an entire community was good or bad. We trace the specific claim, the mechanism behind it and the record available to verify it. Use the practical guides alongside these investigations to understand the control layers: token authorities, holder accounts, pool positions and the permissions that remain after launch.
Meme Autopsy #15: BALD’s Liquidity Exit Was Onchain; Its Deployer Identity Was Not
BALD’s 2023 Base collapse left a reproducible liquidity-removal receipt, but the public chain record did not identify the person behind the deployer key.
Meme Autopsy #14: HAWK’s Launch Is Now a Pending Federal Case
The HAWK launch moved from a viral-token collapse into pending federal litigation. Here is what the chain record, launch analysis and amended complaint actually establish.
Meme Autopsy #13: SQUID’s One-Way Market and Liquidity Drain
SQUID’s own rules constrained selling before the 2021 liquidity drain. The archived whitepaper, contract record and Binance account show separate layers of risk.
Meme Autopsy #12: Kishu Inu’s Fair-Launch Claim in an Indictment
A federal indictment challenges Kishu Inu’s 2021 fair-launch story. The contract, marketing claims and alleged founder allocations are different layers of evidence.
Meme Autopsy #11: What PEOPLE Meant After ConstitutionDAO Closed
ConstitutionDAO raised more than $40 million and lost the auction. Its own records explain why PEOPLE survived without representing a share of the document or an active DAO.
Meme Autopsy #10: The Payments Behind EthereumMax’s Celebrity Posts
Two SEC orders put numbers behind EthereumMax’s celebrity promotion: $250,000 in cash for one post and about $244,116 in tokens for another campaign.
Meme Autopsy #9: The LP Tokens Behind SafeMoon’s ‘Locked Liquidity’ Claim
SafeMoon marketed locked liquidity as protection from a rug pull. The overlooked control layer was the LP tokens that could release it.
Meme Autopsy #8: What the Musk Dogecoin Lawsuit Failed to Establish
A two-page order ended the Musk Dogecoin case. It rejected the pleaded theory, but it did not perform the wallet investigation many headlines implied.
Meme Autopsy #7: What FLOKI’s London Ad Put in Small Print
FLOKI bought mass attention with four words on London transit. The regulator’s record shows why a warning in small print did not cancel the headline’s promise.
Meme Autopsy #6: Moo Deng Had a Name Before MOODENG Had a Contract
The zoo named a real hippo. A separate Solana project used the same fame. The receipts show the difference between a meme, a mint address and an authorized relationship.
Meme Autopsy #5: What Survived LIBRA’s Deleted Post
The $LIBRA post disappeared in hours. A contract address, official files, a freeze request and a dismissed U.S. case show what the record proves and what it still does not.
Meme Autopsy #4: The Fine Print Behind TRUMP’s Dinner Leaderboard
TRUMP’s dinner promotions turn token holdings into a competition for invitations. Our case follows the dated records, current rules and gaps a wallet ranking cannot resolve.
Meme Autopsy #3: When SHIB’s Story Reached the Research Grant Desk
A meme token helped enter the language of research grants. The recipient’s records reveal a more useful story than a giant donation headline, with clear limits to what we can verify.
Meme Autopsy #2: BONK’s Christmas Gift and the Allocation Math That Needs Explaining
BONK made distribution part of its meme. We compare the Christmas-launch story with the allocation documents and identify a discrepancy that needs records, not accusations.
Meme Autopsy #1: The Dogecoin Joke That Bought a NASCAR Seat
A dog photo became a currency, then a racing sponsorship. Our first case follows the receipts and separates a real community achievement from borrowed credibility.