Propose an edit: PUNCH

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Title Category One sentence summary Infobox, one "key: value" per line Article body, markdown, use [[wiki links]] and end with a ## References section

PUNCH, registered on chain under the Japanese name パンチ, is a meme coin on [[Solana]] launched through [[pump.fun]] in early February 2026 around Punch, a baby Japanese macaque at Ichikawa City Zoo in Chiba Prefecture. It stands with [[Moo Deng]] and [[Peanut the Squirrel]] in the lineage of coins built on genuinely viral real animals, and it is unusual in that the attention around it coincided with substantial real money reaching the animal.

## The monkey

Punch was born at the zoo in July 2025 and was rejected by his mother shortly after birth. Keepers hand raised him and gave him an IKEA DJUNGELSKOG stuffed orangutan as a surrogate mother. Footage of the tiny macaque dragging the plushie around his enclosure exploded in February 2026, with the most shared clips passing 40 million views in that month alone, and coverage followed from the Japan Times, CNN, the New York Times and the BBC. The president of IKEA Japan visited the zoo in February 2026 to donate fresh plushies. By summer 2026 the arc had a happy ending, with Punch integrating into the troop and playing alongside a companion named Momo chan.

## The coin

The token launched on pump.fun as the story went viral, and DexScreener dates its PumpSwap pool to February 5, 2026. Coverage from 99Bitcoins and Yahoo Finance described a rise of roughly 80,000 percent from its launch lows. The peak came on February 20, 2026, when [[Justin Sun]] and the exchange HTX pledged 100,000 dollars to Ichikawa City Zoo and named Punch an HTX brand ambassador; the coin jumped about 194 percent in a day to a market capitalization near 27.6 million dollars on more than 43 million dollars of volume. The project, run from the account @Punch_on_sol, states that a portion of community proceeds supports the zoo and says it obtained verbal authorization from zoo administration to use Punch's imagery, a claim that rests on the project's own statements.

## Monkey Mountain

The zoo opened an official donation drive for Punch in mid March 2026, and by early June it had raised about 43 million yen, with the deadline extended to December 31. The funds are earmarked for improvements to Monkey Mountain, the enclosure where Punch and the other macaques live, including an expanded enclosure, sunshades and air conditioning.

## Current status

As of mid August 2026 PUNCH trades at a market capitalization around 645,000 dollars per DexScreener, far below its February peak but still liquid, with the community accounts active as Punch himself outgrows the plushie era that made him famous.

## References

- https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/02/24/japan/punch-monkey-viral/
- https://finance.yahoo.com/news/justin-sun-donates-100k-viral-121018022.html
- https://www.timeout.com/tokyo/news/still-thinking-of-punch-the-monkey-ichikawa-zoo-just-extended-its-donation-deadline-for-him-060426
- https://thetab.com/2026/03/18/japan-zoo-opens-official-donations-for-punch-the-monkey-and-heres-how-to-donate
- https://punchonsolana.live/sanctuary
- https://www.tbsnews.net/offbeat/plushie-partner-punch-macaque-finds-love-momo-chan-ichikawa-zoo-1390896

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