Father pledges $1 million to cancer research after charity coin hits $80 million market cap

The father of a young girl battling a rare brain tumor has pledged $1 million to fund research into her condition after an unexpected cryptocurrency windfall.

Siqi Chen, CEO of startup funding platform Runway, announced the donation after the charitable coin, named after his daughter Mira, reached a record market capitalization of $80 million.

Chen’s commitment

The girl’s diagnosis prompted Chen to post a plea on X earlier in the week, asking for donations to support the Hankinson Lab at the University of Colorado, a research center specializing in rare brain tumors. The post attracted widespread attention, prompting a Pump.fun user to create the MIRA token.

The cryptocurrency immediately gained traction, reaching a record market capitalization of $80 million. One notable supporter, an X user named Waddles, purchased and transferred 50% of MIRA’s supply to Chen, instantly making his stake in the coin worth millions.

Waddles shared his motivation on X, explaining that he hoped to rally the Solana community to support a meaningful cause during the holiday season. He also expressed his joy that things had turned out this way and hoped that the funds would help find a cure for people suffering from the disease.

In a December 26 update, Chen expressed his gratitude, calling it “the most memorable day on the Internet” in his 30 years online. The technology manager then presented a strategy to liquidate the funds responsibly. He revealed plans to sell $1,000 worth of MIRA every 10 minutes indefinitely, promising to give 24 hours’ notice if the schedule changed.

“100% of every penny we made from this, from every kitkat/meme piece, including LP fees, will go directly to rare disease research,” Chen said.

Although some traders profit from the coin without contributing to charity, he highlighted the overall positive impact of the initiative. Initially aiming to raise $200,000, he confirmed that goal would be far exceeded, ultimately donating at least $1 million to rare disease research.

The charity meme piece

Since the announcement, MIRA’s value has declined, stabilizing at a market capitalization of approximately $14 million at the time of writing. Another token, “kitkat,” named after the girl’s dog, briefly reached a market cap of $3 million before falling to around $111,000.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin previously highlighted charitable meme coins as a “positive sum” innovation in the meme coin trend.

In a March blog post, he expressed optimism that such tokens could evolve into meaningful projects, benefiting the crypto ecosystem and society while challenging the perception that such assets are useless or perpetuate harmful stereotypes.