A bizarre twist of AI tech and nostalgia is seeing memecoin enthusiasts issue, pump, and dump tokens themed after Studio Ghibli movies as a new AI art trend went viral in the past 24 hours.
That’s coming after OpenAI’s newly released 4o model — its most powerful image generation tool that spits out artwork based on specific user instructions and style guidelines, mimicking the characteristic vibe and style of artists and animators.
Thursday’s internet craze is specific to AI-generated images styled after the whimsical, hand-drawn charm of Studio Ghibli films, with fans flooding the web with selfies and landscapes with an eerie precision of the studio’s My Neighbour Totoro and Spirited Away films.
The hashtag #GhibliAI has since racked up millions of hits on X and Instagram. And crypto traders are now turning the trend into digital gold.
A flurry of Ghibli-themed cryptocurrencies are doing the rounds on Ethereum and Solana blockchains, with “ghiblification” (GHIBLI) emerging as the biggest one yet with a $21 million market cap as of Asian morning hours.
Inspired memecoins often go viral and tend to rack up bets because they tap into internet culture’s love for humor, absurdity, and community. Their low entry cost and wild price swings draw speculators chasing quick gains, amplifying buzz.
It has racked up nearly $70 million in trading volumes in just 24 hours of going live from a little over 250,000 individual trades. The token’s liquidity pool has just over $330,000 worth of Solana’s SOL (meaning the max a GHIBLI holder can exchange their holdings for, minus price declines).
Smaller tokens such as Ghilbi Doge, a Studio Ghibli-inspired doge, and popular movie characters NoFace and Yutaro have inspired their tokens. However, these have not gained much traction among traders as of Asian afternoon hours.