The Thai zoo’s viral baby hippo will celebrate its first birthday with a three-day extravaganza, just as South Korean exchange Upbit lists its eponymous token.
Moo Deng, the viral baby pygmy hippo of Thailand’s Khao Kheow Open Zoo, is set to celebrate her first birthday in style, as her eponymous memecoin soars more than 20% on the back of being listed by South Korean exchange Upbit.
Upbit announced that it would list the MOODENG token on July 3, paired with the Korean Won (KRW) as well as BTC and USDT. Listings on the centralized exchange often trigger significant volatility.
Today’s spike also coincides with her home zoo announcing a three-day celebration of all things Moo Deng (and cute and cuddly) culminating on the pygmy hippo’s July 10 birthday.
Moo Deng took the internet by storm last year, with the zoo seeing huge lines, and an unofficial Solana-based memecoin naturally followed, with MOODENG briefly spiking north of $600 million.
In December, Moo Deng was back in the news after the zoo revealed that Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin had donated 10 million baht — then about $293,000 — to sponsor Moo Deng and her family.
“I’m happy to be adoptive father to Moo Deng as she grows up over the next 2y and support her with my 10M THB donation, maybe more as I set aside 88 ETH for[the pygmy hippo] + frens. May they live long and prosper,” Buterin wrote in an X post.
