The meme coin casino just had its wildest week yet – and not in a good way.

We've got a $10M rug pull in India, and Charles Hoskinson literally setting $100M on fire.

Cardano is no stranger to burning money, but normally it doesn’t go down like this.

Let’s dive in.

The GANG Heist

The India rug pull story starts with a dev calling himself MrPunkDotEth, who dropped a token called GANG.

He originally claimed it was "for the culture."

Turns out he held 95% of the supply.

Eight short minutes later, he dumps everything, walks away with $10M, and calls his victims "broke."

Talk about a scamming speed run.

The CHARLES Token Drama

Meanwhile, someone tried to pull a fast one on Cardano's Charles Hoskinson.

They airdropped him 900 billion CHARLES tokens worth up to $100M, probably hoping he'd play along.

Instead? My man livestreamed himself burning it all for 45 cents in fees.

"Homie don't play that way" – an actual quote from Hoskinson on the situation. 

We have to respect Charles for the move – not many people would torch that much potential profit when it’s dropped right onto their lap.

Spooky Meme Coin Numbers

Let’s break down the stark reality of meme coins in 2025.

A whopping 97% of all meme coins since 2021 are dead – no life whatsoever.

$400M was lost to scams in 2024 alone – it’s only going up from here from the looks of things.

An incredible 70% failure rate (and that's being generous) is a scar on the industry – it’s arguably worse than gambling.

How to Not Lose Your Shirt

But, thankfully, there are some basic rules of thumb that you can follow to maximize your chances of success if you absolutely must play the meme coin casino. 

First, if devs hold more than 20% of tokens, run. It’s a rug pull waiting to happen (TRUMP was an anomaly for obvious reasons.) 

No locked liquidity? Run faster. That TVL can go from $1 million+ to $0 in the blink of an eye.

Celebrity "endorsements" are a sign that you should avoid at all costs – the Hawk Tuah girl still has ongoing lawsuits for those keeping track. 

And please, use Arkham or Etherscan before you ape just to verify some of the basics. 

The Aftermath

India's regulators are finally waking up to some of the dangers of meme coins and exploring how to curve the bad actors.

Binance is sweating after letting our friend MrPunkDotEth cash out – not exactly proof of control over your exchange.

And Hoskinson? His ADA might pump 70% because he actually has integrity.

Look, not all meme coins are scams – DOGE and SHIB proved that.

But when 97% of tokens fail, and $10M can vanish faster than your coffee gets cold, maybe it's time to take a good, sober look at how meme coins are impacting the industry.

To quote Hoskinson, "Don't follow projects mindlessly."

Well said, Charles. Well said.