Crypto Vultures Capitalize on Queen Elizabeth’s Death

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has died, Buckingham Palace announced today. While her passing has sparked an outpouring of sympathies and condolences from around the globe, it has also been seized upon as a cash-grab. 

Queen Elizabeth Inu

The Queen is dead, but grift lives forever.

Queen Elizabeth’s death has spawned over 40 meme coins on Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain (and at least one exploitative NFT collection).

While the news of the British monarch’s passing was received with sadness around the globe, crypto grifters seized the opportunity to launch dozens of Queen-themed meme coins on Ethereum and Binance’s BNB Chain.

“Queen Elizabeth Inu,” “Queen Doge,” “God Save The Queen,” “London Bridge Is Down,” “Queen Grow,” “Rip Queen Elizabeth,” “Elizabeth II,” and “Queen Inu II” are but a few of the crypto coins that were launched; other tokens named after the new monarch, King Charles III, have also made an appearance. At least 40 different meme coins seem to have been created in the last six hours, according to DexScreener.

Since their launch, the most liquid tokens, Save The Queen and Queen Elizabeth Inu, have already processed almost $700,000 and $200,000 in trading volume, respectively. At the time of writing, Queen Elizabeth Inu is up 23,271% on Binance Smart Chain and 3,708% on Uniswap; meanwhile, the price of Save The Queen tokens has appreciated by 1,517%. Prices are extremely volatile and highly unlikely to sustain themselves.

An NFT collection entitled “Queen Elizabeth 69 Years NFT” has apparently also been created. The collection purports to offer one picture for every year of the Queen’s reign. Reasons to doubt the project’s intentions include the fact that Elizabeth II reigned for 70 years, not 69. 

The crypto community, ordinarily remarkable for its gallows humor, mostly bristled at the projects. “You’re going to hell,” stated NFT enthusiast ThreadGuy when learning about the NFT collection. “We’ve got to stop this crypto shit,” said trader Byzantine General.

Queen Elizabeth was born in 1926. The longest-reigning British monarch ever, she died at the age of 96 in Balmoral Castle. 

Disclaimer: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned ETH and several other cryptocurrencies.