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The JONATHAN meme coin surged in value following the announcement of the death of its mascot—a 193-year-old tortoise named Jonathan, recognized as the oldest terrestrial animal on the planet. It was later revealed that the news was an April Fools’ joke.
According to CoinMarketCap, the price of the JONATHAN token, which operates on the Solana blockchain, skyrocketed by nearly 1400% within an hour on April 1, reaching an all-time high of $0.00038. The price has since undergone a correction and is currently trading around $0.000054.
Trading volume for the token on the first day of April surged to nearly $640,000, despite its fully diluted market cap (the theoretical market capitalization of the cryptocurrency if all tokens were in circulation at the current price) being only $73,000, with liquidity at $22,000.
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The joke was posted by a social media account on X, impersonating Jonathan’s veterinarian, Joe Hollins. The anonymous account initially shared a post about the tortoise’s death and later, in a separate post that was subsequently deleted, claimed it was merely a prank.
“The post about Jonathan’s death received 1.7 million views—it’s insane. Yes, he is still alive. It was just an April Fools’ joke,” wrote the fake Hollins.
Later, investigative enthusiasts discovered that the post’s author was located in Brazil and had used an IP address spoofing to appear as if they were in the U.S.
Immediately following the initial announcement, several reputable sources, including Wikipedia and the BBC, disseminated the news of Jonathan’s death, noting that throughout his long life, the tortoise had met with Queen Elizabeth II and other dignitaries. After the news broke, the governor of Saint Helena, Nigel Phillips, and the real veterinarian of the tortoise, Joe Hollins, confirmed that Jonathan was alive.
The JONATHAN token was created eight months ago using the meme coin generator Pump.fun. Since early March, the associated account on X has regularly shared AI-generated memes featuring tortoises.
In January, the meme coin The Nietzschean Penguin, launched on the Solana network, experienced a 564% increase in value after the official White House account tweeted “Embrace the Penguin.”
