PENGUIN, a meme coin built on the Solana blockchain, experienced a staggering increase in value this past weekend, jumping 564% after a viral social media post from the White House. This unexpected surge was fueled by a wave of speculative buying from retail investors in the cryptocurrency market.
The token, known affectionately as PENGUIN by its supporters, saw its market capitalization rise significantly within just 24 hours, going from approximately $387,000 to around $136 million. This notable increase followed a White House post on X, featuring a digitally created image of former President Trump alongside a penguin holding an American flag, accompanied by the caption, “Embrace the penguin.”
The imagery quickly gained traction on social media platforms, with the Department of Defense later sharing a variant of the post, urging users to “be a warrior, embrace the penguin.” The trading volume for PENGUIN surged to an impressive $244 million during this period, reflecting the high level of interest among traders.
Alon Cohen, co-founder of the meme coin launchpad Pump.fun, remarked on the performance of PENGUIN, asserting that its rapid success demonstrates that on-chain trading remains vibrant. Cohen described the token as a “sleeping giant” that was poised to awaken under the right circumstances.
This surge in PENGUIN”s value comes despite a broader downturn in the meme coin market, which has seen the collapse of approximately 11.6 million crypto tokens over the past year, largely due to an influx of new meme coin launches. Notably, however, the meme coin market cap had briefly surged by 23% in early 2025, climbing from about $38 billion in December to over $47 billion, as noted by CoinMarketCap.
Data from Santiment indicated that the increased activity on social media platforms coincided with the short-term rise in meme coin valuations, suggesting a direct correlation between online discussions and market movements. Vincent Liu, Chief Investment Officer at trading firm Kronos Research, added that meme coins tend to lead the market when investor risk appetite increases, as evidenced by a rebound in the Fear and Greed Index.
In summary, the remarkable rise of the PENGUIN token underscores the unpredictable nature of the cryptocurrency market, where even a single social media post can trigger substantial trading activity and price volatility.
