A newly launched meme coin on the Solana blockchain has paid crypto traders’ attention after being released in early November, and it has now become the top gainer.

Peanut the Squirrel (PNUT) appeared suddenly as the top gainer among cryptocurrencies last month by having a skyrocketing price performance of up to 2,300% from $0.052 to $1.31 at the time of writing.

Despite being known as a new-entry meme coin, Peanut the Squirrel is already entering the top 100 cryptocurrencies just a few weeks after released. The coin was led as the top gainers of the month, followed by Hedera (HBAR) with 689%, Stellar (XLM) with 470%, and XRP (XRP) with 428%.

The token was created in October to pay tribute to a squirrel euthanized by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Now, this inspiring token was capturing a market cap of $1.3 billion.

The token kept performing in December with a 10.13% increase in a day of trading, with the volume of trading expanded by almost 100% to $1.5 billion.

Peanut the Squirrel controversy

Peanut the Squirrel token also paid the owner’s attention after illegally taking his pet and story for making millions in cryptocurrency. In contrast, the community members claimed that they had raised and donated $50,000 to the owners due to the Squirrel’s euthanization.

“Squirrel Dad has also announced he plans to be suing $PNUT in his own words: “Wait til I shut it down for copyright infringement,” & has stated it will take place tomorrow,” ProofOfEly mentioned on X post.

After the rise of PNUT, Squirrel owner Mark Longo made his own crypto token named JUSTICE as he tried to step away from the community and assert himself over the narrative. He also showed his frustration with how the community misused his pet legacy for financial gain without any compensation.