Elon Musk was once again involved in the latest crypto hype, though the glory for the emergence of fake coins this time goes to McDonald's. Grimacecoin is an excellent example for traders of the need to properly think through investment decisions.

The story began with a run-of-the-mill attempt by Elon Musk to breathe some life into his beloved Dogecoin. On 14 January, Tesla announced that it would be accepting DOGE as a payment method for several of its products. Within hours, the coin's price had risen by 30%. But over the coming days, Doge's newfound optimism waned once more.

Then, on 25 January, Musk called upon McDonald's to add Dogecoin to its list of accepted payment methods, promising to livestream himself eating a Happy Meal if they did. As a joke, the fast-food chain replied: "only if @tesla starts accepting grimacecoin" (Grimace is one of McDonald's brand characters).

After McDonald's statement, the Binance Smart Chain network was flooded with dozens of fake Grimacecoins, the best-performing of which rose from $0.0007 to $2.00 to reach a market cap of $2 million. The coin managed to rack up more than 6,000 transactions and is now held by 1,179 people.

The bulk of its trading was on decentralised exchanges, but it has since fallen significantly. With no official word from McDonald's about it launching its own coin, a growing number of participants in the hype are removing their rose-tinted glasses.

This isn't the first time scammers have taken advantage of crypto investors' trusting nature. In November, we covered the story of SQUID coin, which was launched amid the global interest in the TV series 'Squid Game'. In that case, the tokens were sold as tickets for an online game. In the end, no game even took place.

The internet is full of examples of little-known tokens gaining huge popularity in the span of a year by promising investors earth-shattering returns. Unfortunately, however, investors in such projects typically end up losing their money. But what do you think: is it worth buying start-ups, or is it wiser to focus on well-established projects? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section!

StormGain analytical group

(cryptocurrency trading, exchange and storage platform)