Mert Asked the FBI for Help After mec Went Live
Summary
• Mert, a major Solana figure, spent the morning praising privacy coins like Zcash, unintentionally setting the tone for a "privacy memecoin" gag later that day.
• Gainzy hosted a stream with Mert, Kain, and Illia where a joke coin, mertcash, was launched live.
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On the morning of November 5, @0xMert_, a core Solana developer and founder of Helius Labs, was posting about Zcash, calling it a “private bank vault on the internet.” He emphasized its privacy features, which ended up loosely theming the events that followed - even though he didn’t plan it that way.
Later that day, streamer Gainzy announced a privacy-themed livestream with Mert, Kain, and Illia.
During the stream, Kain deployed a token called mertcash (mec) as a prank. A clip of the moment the coin went live - including Mert’s surprised reaction - circulated quickly.
Mert plays along with the prank during the stream. Kain posted a public tweet 15 minutes after deployment to correct the record confirming that he alone executed the launch and Mert had nothing to do with it. Nine minutes later, Mert tweeted “uhhhh ????? @FBI can you help me?” as a funny way to react to the wild mess his joke started.
mec hit a $1.9M market cap within its first three hours of launch.
