Absurdist Solana meme coin Chillhouse flipped one of the two tokens that it was created to poke fun at on Thursday.
Chillhouse’s flipping of Housecoin prompted a wave of even more foolish tokens to take over the trenches. For example, Farthouse and Chillgull—which combines Chillguy with a seagull, for some reason—hit peak market caps of $4.28 million and $1.13 million amid the chaos.
Chillhouse was launched in April as a combination of the previously TikTok-viral Chillguy and the then-surging Housecoin, which launched with promises to flip the housing market. Over its two-month lifespan, Chillhouse has become a crypto-native inside joke with “thoughts on Chillhouse” becoming a meme that highlights the ridiculousness of crypto investing.
From Monday to Thursday, according to DEX Screener, Chillhouse jumped 168% to a $26 million market cap while Housecoin traded sideways and has recently settled at $19 million. Chillhouse has since fallen 33% to $17.3 million, below Housecoin, which has continued to stay flat at $19 million.
Housecoin reached its all-time high market cap of $120 million in May, following a series of endorsements from crypto social media influencers. The Solana meme coin brands itself as a “hedge against the housing market,” which its community believes is on the decline.
In the U.S., pending home sales are at record lows last seen during the COVID pandemic over the past 20 years, according to the National Association of Realtors. Economists have taken it as a sign that fewer people are looking to buy properties in the U.S..
Meanwhile, in Europe, similar issues are sweeping the continent. According to the European Parliament, from 2015 to 2023, house prices jumped 48% on average, while rent prices rose 18% from 2010 to 2023.
As a result, economists have noted that youth have become nihilistic about their chances of buying property through traditional routes, like investing in stable assets like the S&P 500. Instead, many have turned to highly risky investment opportunities in the hopes they can gamble their way to the top. Meme coins are just one example of this financial nihilism at play.
So there’s some irony in the fact that Housecoin—a meme coin based on cynicism for the housing market—was flipped by another meme coin that is just as speculative.
Meme coins, at their core, do not have any intrinsic value. Instead, the tokens pump and dump based on the perceived cultural relevance of what they represent. This could be a news event, like a celebrity dying, or a predicted event, like a man beating the record for traveling to all 50 U.S. States… or the housing market collapsing.
Chillhouse was born as an abursidist meme, poking fun at the ridiculousness of two of the largest meme coins. Now, however, its community has made flipping Chillguy its goal.
Chillguy surged to a $775 million market cap in November 2024, as the cartoon of a pretty chill dude went viral on TikTok. Artist Phillip Banks didn’t endorse the meme coin, instead threatening legal action. The token eventually plummeted 94% to $44 million, where it remains today.
For Chillhouse to surpass Chillguy’s current market cap, the meme coin would need to climb 156% from its present valuation. That’s a tough ask, but one that the community has already started trying to tackle. In the latest evolution of the Chillhouse meme, the community is suggesting that the Chillguy cartoon character was responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attack.
Edited by Stacy Elliott.
