Solana Dev Quits Project He Set Himself on Fire to Pump

A Solana meme coin creator set himself on fire as a dare, and was hospitalized with third-degree burns in an effort to promote his project. But now he’s done with it.

Mikol, the DARE coin’s creator, told Decrypt last week the only regret he has is not cashing out when he had the opportunity, back when the coin was charting blazing-hot gains.

Truth or Dare (DARE) is a meme coin project led by Mikol, who performed livestreamed stunts to help pump his token. After six days of performing goofy antics, the meme coin dev went too far by dousing himself in isopropyl alcohol and having friends shoot fireworks at him. Quickly, he went up in flames and was rushed to hospital with third-degree burns across 30% of his body.

Now, after five months of healing, Mikol is calling it quits.

“I’m not [the] DARE dev anymore. My name is Mikol and I’m human. I just wanna make it out [of] the trenches like you,” he posted on Twitter. “I just wanna be consistent with God and be a positive human being with an outgoing personality that puts smiles on people’s faces.”

i’m not dare dev anymore. my name is mikol and i’m human. i just wanna make it out the trenches like you. i just wanna be happy and successful. i just wanna be consistent with god and be a positive human being with an outgoing personality that puts smiles on peoples faces. life…

— Mikol 🔥 (@lonemikol) October 3, 2024

Since the fiery incident, only two team members remain in contact with the injured dev; the rest “took their money and left,” Mikol told Decrypt. One of those people, Mikol said, is the unidentified person that came up with the idea to set him ablaze—someone who was a close friend and did not apologize for the dare.

“I have learned from it. It’s made me become less trustworthy and more aware of every little thing,” Mikol told Decrypt. “Everybody in this space wants money; everything else is after.”

Mikol had lofty plans of building a Truth or Dare app and climbing Mount Everest, but claims these plans fell apart alongside the team crumbling.

“The time that DARE was most popular and running at its highest was when I was in the hospital and wasn’t in full control. I was healing, I was going through surgery,” Mikol told Decrypt. “Honestly, I didn’t benefit from DARE—not money-wise. I mean, I gained a little popularity, but that’s temporary.”

Throughout the process, Mikol has maintained that he doesn’t regret what happened. Instead, Mikol is mostly peeved that he didn’t make any money from DARE—aside from $3,000 donated to him by the community to pay hospital bills.

Mikol told Decrypt his biggest regret was not cashing out after seeing $200,000 in his wallet.

DARE skyrocketed 4,500% to a market cap of $1.82 million over the 10 hours that followed the stunt. The value of the token fell as Mikol spent weeks in hospital recovering, unable to do much. But as he was set to leave the hospital, the project again spiked 1,735% to a market cap of $2.91 million. The burned-up dev claims to have never sold.

After coming home, Mikol attempted a number of small-time pranks, such as the cinnamon challenge, but the project never again reached those peaks. It fell 94% over the following week and ultimately fizzled out, with a current market cap of just $26,000 as of this writing.

Mikol still believes the Truth or Dare project could work in the future, despite the hardship. He’s just not willing to commit himself to it for the foreseeable future.

Going forward, the Miami resident plans to become a “trench warrior” and work on growing his social media presence. DARE was always built around Mikol as a personality, and he wants to continue being himself online and grow his audience through that approach—without the potentially painful stunts.

Mikol’s fireworks-fueled tragedy came amid an exploding trend of meme coin devs livestreaming increasingly controversial shenanigans in attempts to pump their tokens. It all started when a mom shook her breats on camera to help raise the price of her alleged son’s token, while another incident saw a dev lose a tooth from boxing on camera.

But Mikol’s stunt took the trend to a new level that arguably was never matched.

More recently, the gonzo meme coin livestreaming meta was revived by a 19-year-old who streams drug binges with his stripper girlfriend—even faking his death at one point. Now, barely over a month into his meme coin career, that developer has pivoted into racist content.

Edited by Andrew Hayward

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