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Popular cryptocurrency exchange platforms such as Binance are used to peddle bigotry.
Cryptocurrency creators are making hundreds of thousands of dollars from extremist ideas and Nazi symbolism. “Meme coins,” which are cryptocurrency coins made to be “jokes,” co-opt far-right extremist ideas and symbols in their design, drawing from Trump’s racist mass deportation policy, depicting the Nazi Black Sun symbol, and depicting imagery related to neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes’ Groyper movement. New meme coins are constantly produced to exploit the virality of extremist tropes, such as bigoted recruitment posts made by the DHS and ICE.
A new investigation into these extremist meme coins by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) has uncovered a multi-million dollar extremism economy on cryptocurrency marketplaces such as Binance, which boasts $65 billion in average daily volume (i.e., total value of coins traded in one day), and 300 billion spot transactions (i.e., a purchase or sale of a currency with instantaneous delivery) in 2022. It’s AI summary feature inexplicably promotes neo-Nazi coins as “innovation,” as Binance earns money on trades involving them by taking a 0.1% fee on every spot trade. Meanwhile, users can generate income from extremist ideologies through meme coin websites such as pump.fun, which offers revenue sharing rewards for content creators, equating to $500 paid in Solana (a cryptocurrency) for $1 million in trading volume, $2,500 for $5 million, and $10,000 for $20 million.
Cryptocurrencies (“crypto”), a series of largely unregulated online digital currencies, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana, among many others, have a global market cap of over four trillion dollars. Crypto is commonly traded on marketplaces such as Binance, Crypto.com, Kraken, and others. “Meme coins,” which are cryptocurrencies produced as “jokes,” are part of this ecosystem, with its creators able to make millions by capitalizing on social media trends. Oftentimes, meme coin creators will buy the coin (or “token”) right after it launches, and sell after it gains traction, while others reap the rewards of revenue sharing systems.
Hate runs through crypto culture, and especially in meme coins. Crypto was born from the finance and tech industries, whose male-dominated nature has been correlated with “rampant bigotry.” In May 2025, 50 invitees to a Trump meme coin dinner were found to hold crypto assets with alt-right imagery, swastikas, references to antisemitism, and a racial slur. Cryptocurrencies also enable the proliferation of extremist ideologies and fundraising for American neo-Nazi organizations such as the National Socialist Movement (NSM), the Goyim Defense League (GDL), and Nationalist Social Club 131 (NSC-131).
Trump has promised to turn the United States into the “crypto capital of the world.” Crypto.com, a cryptocurrency exchange website, donated eleven million dollars to political committees associated with Trump, sparking concern from legal and ethics experts about potential conflicts of interest. Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpen Zhao in November, who was sentenced to prison in 2024 after pleading guilty to failing to maintain an anti-money-laundering program.
Bigoted Profiteering Inspired By The White House
Amid racist posts made by official United States government agency accounts on X, which itself is part of a continuing trend of hate-mongering by the Trump administration, crypto users have created several meme coins accessible on Binance capitalizing on the government’s viral posts. A post made on November 30 by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth depicting Franklin the Turtle firing rockets out of a helicopter at boats, referencing American attacks on Venezuelan boats deemed to be trafficking drugs to the United States, went viral and quickly became the inspiration for a new meme coin. AI-generated images of Franklin, following Hegseth’s post, began to go viral. Soon after, an account called @FranklineOnSol was created on X, making its first post on December 1 advertising a meme coin called $FRANKLIN.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth shares a violent image of Franklin the Turtle shooting rockets at boats. The post collected over 28 million views. (Source: X).
In continued attempts to drive users to crypto exchanges to invest in the coin, @FranklineOnSol shared several bigoted posts on X using AI-generated Franklin imagery, which included anti-South Asian racist slurs, promotion of “ICE deportation videos,” which reference fashwave posts made by DHS and ICE, depictions of Franklin dressed up as a DHS agent deporting Dora the Explorer, references to deporting Rep. Ilhan Omar (MN), who Trump has repeatedly targeted, references to neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes, and violent anti-LGBTQ+ imagery (Franklin holding a gun glaring at people wearing Pride t-shirts and carrying signs that say “Drag Story Hour”).
The $FRANKLIN meme coin account on X shares a post with over 269,000 views depicting violence against the LGBTQ+ community, as it continued to capitalize on the meme’s virality to encourage investment in its meme coin. (Source: X).
$FRANKLIN reached a $24.2 million market cap (i.e., total value of all coins that have been mined) on December 9, before plummeting to $1.97 million by December 17, as the meme’s virality cooled off and users sold their coins. Binance’s AI described the Franklin meme as having “sparked massive engagement…turning Franklin into a symbol of based conservative culture.” The term “based” was co-opted by the far right from rapper Lil B, and is “used by hateful elements online to signal their support for hateful ideas and individuals.” According to pump.fun, the coin’s creator has so far earned around $243,320 through its creator rewards program, as of December 17 (having created 46 coins, of which the Franklin coin is by far the most valuable).
User 5zwN9N, creator of the Franklin coin, has earned a total of $243,320 from all its meme coins, of which Franklin is its most profitable. (Source: pump.fun).
Here are other meme coins named for elements of the Trump administration, accessible through Binance, followed by their market caps, and reported amount earned by its creator (according to pump.fun), as of December 17:
Neo-Nazi Meme Coins
Meme coins are rife with Nazi symbolism, especially as esoteric (i.e., mystical) Nazism becomes more popular on mainstream social media platforms. The most notable of these symbols is the Black Sun, which was popularized by Nazi SS leader Heinrich Himmler after being depicted in Germany’s Wewelsburg castle. In modern times, it has been used by Ukraine’s Azov Battalion, which has links to neo-Nazis, and by white supremacist mass shooters inspired by the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, including the attacker of two mosques in Christchurch, N.Z., in 2019, who murdered 51 people. In the United States, a mass shooter wore the Black Sun on his body armor as he murdered ten people at a supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y, in May 2022.
An example of a Black Sun, a Nazi symbol which has appeared in several manifestos and attires of far-right mass murderers, including the 2019 Christchurch mosque shooter and the 2022 Buffalo shooter.
Binance’s AI-generated summaries of Nazi-inspired coins such as VRIL (The Power of the Coming Race), which has a $2.19 million market cap, and VRIL (vrilcoin), which has a $4,020 market cap, appear to miss the Nazi references. Binance’s AI describes these coins, both of which use Black Suns as their logos, as either “inspired by the concept of a future technological revolution,” or as an attempt to “redefine digital currency through innovation and participation.” Binance’s AI described vrilcoin as “agarthan money mode,” referencing “Agartha,” another esoteric Nazi belief, recently used to racially target school-teachers, and associated with Hyperborea, the mythical Aryan homeland, a concept which first went viral on TikTok in 2023.
Binance’s AI describes clearly Nazi-inspired meme coins as aiming “to unite crypto enthusiasts through humor and community engagement,” and “seeking to redefine digital currency through innovation and participation.” The Black Sun can be seen in the upper left corner. (Source: Binance).
Other meme coins hosted on Binance with explicit Nazi references, Agartha, Hyperborea, and Black Sun imagery, along with their market caps and reported amount earned by its creator (according to pump.fun), as of December 17:
| Coin Name | Market Cap (as of Dec 17, 2025) | Creator Reward Earnings On Pump.fun | Notes |
| Agartha (Agartha) | $112,046 | $38,460 (from five coins) | |
| HYPR∞ (HYPERBOREAL INFINITY) | $12,510 | $0 | Reference to Hyperborea |
| $VRIL (AGARTHA) | $6,782 | $160 (from six coins) | Other coins created by this user have names such as Agartha, Agartha Currency, and White Power |
| AGARTHA (AGARTHA) | $5,489 | $153.30 (from four coins) | |
| HYPERBOREA (HYPERBOREA) | $4,773 | $0.73 (from 55 coins) | |
| VRIL (Church Of VRIL) | $4,557 | $6.59 | |
| RETVRN (Hyperborea) | $3,975 | $0 | |
| AGARTHA (Official Agartha Coin) | $3,754 | $0.03 (from six coins) | |
| AGAR (Agartha) | $3,618 | $6.28 |
Binance allows users to trade coins referencing neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes, who is undergoing a mass-sanitization by the mainstream media, and his Groyper movement, which is largely comprised of racist online trolls. The Groyper coin, created by a user named “groyper army” and described as “the coin for groypers,” on meme coin trading website pump.fun, has a market cap of $1.57 million, as of December 17. Binance’s AI summary of the coin is again inaccurate, citing the Groyper image as having “a notable presence in online communities,” thus ignoring its neo-Nazi connection. According to pump.fun, “groyper army” has earned over $65,000 in creator rewards by co-opting the bigoted movement.
The creator of the Groyper coin has reportedly earned around $65,550 by capitalizing on neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes’ Groyper movement. (Source: pump.fun).
Other meme coins hosted on Binance referencing Nick Fuentes and the Groyper movement, along with their market caps and reported amount earned by its creator (according to pump.fun), as of December 17:
| Coin Name | Market Cap (December 17) | Creator Reward Earnings on pump.fun | Notes |
| WANGHAF (WANGHAF) | $78,899 | $10,900 (from five coins) | a term standing for “white ass n***a going hard as fuck, coined by Fuentes |
| FUENTES (Nick Fuentes) | $3,909 | $247 (from one coin) | |
| NIG (NIG FUENTES) | $4,995 | $3,310 (from one coin) | |
| Nick (Nick Fuentes) | $6,795 | $8,410 (from 1,061 coins) | |
| FUENTES (Free Nick Fuentes) | $4,072 | $3,260 (from 563 coins) |
Crypto Platforms Fail to Ban Hateful Content
Under Binance’s “Prohibited Use Policy,” there are several rules against hateful content, none of which appear to be enforced properly. For example, Binance prohibits content “impacting public interest,” such as those that are “potentially harmful to society, spreading misinformation, or influencing societal welfare.” Also included in this policy are prohibitions against the “Promotion of Hate,” which supposedly includes “Promotion of hate, discrimination, and violence in any form, including hate speech based on race, gender identity, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, disability or any other characteristic protected under applicable law.” These rules are clear, but the availability of extremist content on Binance demonstrates a serious lack of policy enforcement.
Pump.fun, on the other hand, has no safeguards against extremism and hateful ideologies in its Terms and Conditions. In its Livestream Moderation Policy, which is limited to “streaming yourself, watching a stream, or chatting with other viewers,” and not related to the meme coins hosted on the website, pump.fun prohibits the “glorification of or encouragement of acts which would cause harm to others or significant harm to property” along with “any content or activity supporting or promoting terrorism or violent extremism.” This includes “display or linking to terrorist propaganda.” It is unclear why these violations are not included in their normal Terms and Conditions, and thus allow for the spread of hate in other parts of the platform.
While extremism flourishes in the ever-growing crypto sector, emboldened by the Trump administration and enriching its creators, hateful propaganda proliferates, spreading further and further online. Until the sector takes seriously its role in spreading hate, crypto joins the ranks of other online platforms in serving as a node for radicalizing young people (25- to 34-year-olds represent 31% of crypto users worldwide, with men making up 61% of all crypto owners) into neo-Nazi and other hate movements.