‘Fortnite’ Added a Fake Crypto Token—And Degens Turned It Into a Solana Meme Coin

Popular battle royale shooter Fortnite recently added a fake cryptocurrency as an in-game gag, along with other elements that appear to poke fun at the industry. But at least one crypto degen took it very seriously, launching a real version of the coin—with some traders profiting tens of thousands of dollars before it crashed.

Dill Bits were added to Fortnite in Chapter 6: Season 2, which was introduced on Friday. The item can be used to purchase high-tier loot at one of three in-game black markets, according to the Fortnite Fandom wiki page, as a nod to the dark web marketplaces and their association with cryptocurrency.

The description for Dill Bits describes it as a “confusing crypto coin you never knew you needed.” And alongside all of that, Fortnite also added a pair of guns called the “Pump and Dump,” referencing the all-too-common action around crypto meme coins.

In seeing Fortnite’s embrace, someone created a real Dill Bits (DB) token, despite no official connection to Fortnite creator Epic Games, using Solana launchpad Pump.fun—which allows anyone to create a token for free after just a few clicks. After almost 24 hours, the unofficial token had skyrocketed to a market cap of $4.78 million.

With this, according to DEX Screener, the token’s top trader profited just over $69,000 through 29 sales, after they bought $7,845 worth of DB just after it “graduated” from Pump.fun—something achieved by hitting a $100,000 market cap.

But, what comes up must come down, with DB collapsing by over 90% to a market cap of just $411,000 as of this writing. The plunge comes amid a broader crash across the crypto markets in recent days as meme coins struggle to gain traction.

This isn’t the first Fortnite-themed meme coin, with Fortnite Token (FNT) launching in 2022. Epic Games CEO and co-founder Tim Sweeney quickly called the token a “scam” and slammed protocols enabling people to trade the token. 

Equally, degens created and traded a number of tokens dedicated to Fortnite characters, skins, and weapons amid the boom of TikTok traders that came with Chill Guy (CHILLGUY). One of these tokens, Jonesy (JONESY), peaked at just over $5.32 million despite no timely hook.

As such, the $4.78 million peak market cap of Dill Bits feels measly to mostly crypto traders, with some suggesting that the token’s muted success is indicative of the lack of buzz in the trenches.

For comparison, a Solana meme coin called 360noscope420blazeit (MLG)—which was inspired by a sense of nostalgia for the early Call of Duty games and the esports competition around them—soared to a $238 million market cap in early February. However, it has since plummeted to below $10 million amid market pressures.

“All the Fortnite kids got rinsed on Libra,” pseudonymous trader and attorney IcoBeast posted on X, in reference to the recent token promoted by President of Argentina Javier Milei. 

After Libra crashed 90% within hours, distrust in the meme coin industry grew as influencers, founders, and presidents were dragged through the dirt. With this, the meme coin trenches have cooled off, with new Pump.fun token launches dropping 27% from 39,450 on the day of the Libra drop to 28,725 just three days later.

This pain has since spread to the broader market with Solana, Ethereum, and XRP all seeing double digit losses as Bitcoin fell to nearly $86,000 on Tuesday. In a market full of red, it appears degens aren’t willing to risk their funds on a video game-inspired meme coin for very long.

Edited by Andrew Hayward