CoinDesk 2025-07-09 06:38:04

Crypto Traders Mint Millions From Grok Glitching on 'MechaHitler'

What started as an apparent ‘hallucinated’ response from X's artificial intelligence platform, Grok, quickly morphed into a microcap memecoin frenzy. The X-based AI tool last week spat our the terms “MechaHitler,” “GigaPutin” and “CyberStalin” in the same breath in an apparent unprompted response to a user query, an erratic, racially charged response that went viral. MechaHitler is a fictional cyborg version of Adolf Hitler from the 1992 game Wolfenstein 3D, which gained fame in 90s satire and early internet memes. While most consider such terms to be dark, offensive, and completely unhinged, some someone took the misfire seriously enough to launch multiple tokens under the name. Over 200 "MechaHitler" tokens went live across Solana and Ethereum, among other networks, in the past 24 hours. The largest, a Solana-based coin Bonk.Fun hit a $2.2 million market cap just three hours after launch, with early trading volume exceeding $1 million, data from DEXTools show. At least one Ethereum-based version zoomed to over $500,000 in market cap. The various tokens followed classic meme coin playbooks: rapid launches, early whales, and volatile pumps and dumps. But unlike DOGE or PEPE, this wave didn’t emerge from a community or subculture — it came from a chatbot meltdown. Grok clarified in follow-up posts that the apparent misfires wholly referenced the game character and not the infamous Austrian-born German politician. As for the tokens: short-lived or not, they underline a clear trend: That in 2025, crypto doesn’t need hype from influencers anymore, an AI hallucination could be enough.