P’Nut the Squirrel’s owner starts crypto coin after feud with online investors
P’Nut the Squirrel’s still-grieving owner is feuding with “delusional” cryptocurrency investors he claims are making millions off the tragic death of his famous pet — while he’s making peanuts.
Mark Longo lashed out this week against P’Nut fans who started so-called “memecoins,” or cryptocurrencies based on viral jokes, featuring his beloved furry friend.
Many of the digital assets cropped up and saw their values skyrocket in October after state Department of Environmental Conservation agents raided Longo’s upstate home, where they seized P’Nut and his raccoon buddy, Fred, before euthanizing and decapitating them for rabies testing.
“I got really, really upset, and I started reaching out and being like, ‘Do not use my stuff without allocating something to the farm,’” Longo, 34, told The Post, referring to the animal sanctuary he operates.
Tension between Longo and the crypto world went public earlier this week when he lashed out on X at those investing in one of the digital tokens, known as the “PEANUT” coin.
“YOU USED MY STORY, MY SQUIRREL AND MY [LIKENESS] TO MAKE MILLIONS,” he seethed on X after the prospective partnership fell through. “How would you feel if NO ONE included your nonprofit made millions then offered a [FRACTION] of the money you made?”
“You people are delusional,” he continued.
A group of investors in the “PEANUT” coin said they had been looking to partner with Longo — who launched his own crypto token on Wednesday, called “JUSTICE.”
The “PEANUT” investors offered him a fractional percentage of the coin circulation at time, which Longo called ”a slap in the face” given the token’s multimillion-dollar market cap. Several “PEANUT” investors said their community still ended up sending him a donation of their digital token worth $50,000.
Longo’s coin is sitting at a $14.5 million market cap as of Friday afternoon, down from a high of $144.7 million hours after the initial launch Wednesday, according to Coin Gecko.
The “JUSTICE” coin has an explicit mission to help support his animal sanctuary, he added.
“They’re looking out for not only me, but my animals in the future,” said Longo, who confirmed he received a “sizable donation” from the “JUSTICE” coin’s investors, but declined to share the amount.
The original “PEANUT” coin investors claimed they started their token almost two weeks before P’Nut’s untimely death, seeking to celebrate the squirrel’s online virality.
Longo misunderstood the dynamics of their coin’s crypto community, they insisted. The vast majority of their token’s token’s roughly 11,000-plus investors hold just $100- to $1,000-worth of the digital asset, and are not seeing any windfalls, one told The Post.
“People in this community would have come together, volunteered at his farm, sent him more money. But he decided that he needed to own the entire thing,” said a 30-year-old early investor in the “PEANUT” coin, who requested anonymity.
