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‘Chill Guy’ Memecoins Iced Out By Artist’s Legal Threat
- Phillip Banks, the creator of the ‘Chill Guy’ meme you’ve probably seen plastered across social media recently, has threatened legal action against memecoins illegally using his artwork.
- Banks made his threats on X / Twitter, stating he’ll be issuing take down orders on “for-profit-related things”, with a particular focus on shitcoins.
- The legal threats sent the largest chill guy cryptocurrency, CHILLGUY, tumbling — losing over 50% of its value in just a few hours, it has now since recovered most of its lost value.
Phillip Banks, the guy behind the ‘Chill Guy’ meme — the latest viral meme to sweep the internet — is not being nearly as chill as many memecoin/shitcoin investors would like.
The creator of the meme took to X/Twitter yesterday to threaten legal action against the now predictable deluge of shitcoins that have illegally used his artwork since it went viral.
Banks said he’s ok with his art being shared and used in memes and jokes, but he draws the line at people breaching his copyright to profit financially.
The biggest memecoin using Banks’ artwork is CHILLGUY on Solana, it soared to a market cap of over US$500 million (AU$768m) within just a few days of launching, before plummeting after Banks’ legal threats, falling to US$220 million (AU$338m). According to CoinGecko, at the time of writing CHILLGUY’s market cap has recovered significantly and now sits at US$437 million (AU$671m).
Banks created his ‘Chill Guy’ illustration in 2023, but it recently gained huge traction on social media. The ‘Chill Guy’ is an illustration of an anthropomorphic dog wearing a jumper, jeans and sneakers — it first gained popularity on TikTok, then spread to other social media platforms including Instagram and X/Twitter.
Related: Memecoin PNUT Soars 200%, Reaches $1 Billion Market Cap on Back of Heartbreak
Legal Threats Send Price Plummeting, Before Rapid Recovery
Banks made legal threats in an X/Twitter post that has since had its visibility limited, saying “Chill guy has been copyrighted. Like, legally. I’ll be issuing takedowns on for-profit-related things over the next few days.” This post triggered an immediate sell-off, with the price dropping by over 50% in just a few hours. But that panic selling proved to be short-lived and the price has now almost recovered to where it was pre-threats.
Perhaps in an effort to get Banks to chill out on the legal threats, CHILLGUY has created a donation wallet for the meme creator. Currently this wallet holds around US$59,000 (AU$90,641) worth of Solana and almost US$240,000 (AU$368,732) worth of various other tokens—including US$177,000 (AU$271,939) of CHILLGUY.
However, Banks doesn’t seem to be too interested in these donations and instead is pretty pissed off that people within these crypto communities have doxxed him, revealing his real identity to the world.
Despite the legal threats from Banks, several large centralised exchanges have already listed the CHILLGUY token, including Crypto.com and Gate.io — while Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, has hinted that it might list the token.
Creator OK With Most Uses Of His Art
In addition to being used to pump shitcoins, Banks’ illustration has been widely used by celebrities and brands, including UFC champion Jon Jones and rapper Sexxy Red, but Banks says he’s pretty chill with this usage, explaining:
Brand accounts using him as a trend, kinda something I don’t really care about (I do just ask for credit or Xboxes).
Phillip Banks, ‘Chill Guy’ meme creator
Related: Mark Cuban Calls All Memecoins Rug Pull ‘in The Works’, Commits to Dogecoin
Waves of cryptocurrencies launching on the back of popular social media memes is becoming something of a trend, and it has also attracted legal action in the past — most notably the Solana-based memecoin Shark Cat, which used a photo of a cat in a shark outfit without the owner’s permission. That case was eventually settled out of court.
Author
Jody McDonald
Jody is a Brisbane-based freelance writer who specialises in writing about business, technology, and the future of work.
