Congressional Hearing Spawns a Pack of Mongoose Coins

Democratic congressperson Brad Sherman of California had some choice words for the crypto industry yesterday—and his comments about a fictional Mongoose Coin have apparently prompted the creation of several mongoose-themed meme coins.

During yesterday’s House Committee on Financial Services hearing focused on cryptocurrencies, Sherman said that “the number one threat to cryptocurrency is crypto.” He went to say that “Bitcoin could be displaced by Ether, which could be displaced by Doge, which could be displaced by Hamster Coin.”

“And then there’s Cobra Coin,” said Sherman. “What could Mongoose Coin do to [Cobra Coin]?”

Following Sherman's comments, several Mongoose Coins have gone live on Avalanche, Polygon, and Binance Smart Chain (BSC). 

Each Mongoose Coin has a vastly different total supply and subsequent price action. MONGOOSE on Polygon has, for example, a supply of 69,420,000. The eponymous token on Avalanche has a supply of more than 92 million tokens.

The BSC-based Mongoose Coin rose more than 61,000% since Sherman’s comments and sparked a wave of speculation about what, indeed, could a Mongoose Coin do to its animal-inspired rivals. “I can’t resist. It’s a terrible idea,” commented one Redditor under a post about the newly-launched Mongoose Coin. “I thought I had learned my lesson. YOLO.”

The token has since halved in price, dropping from its high of roughly $0.0000006 down to $0.00000027, according to crypto exchange PancakeSwap.  

Mongoose Coin emerges amid Congressional hearing

Meme coins aside, yesterday’s hearing was relatively productive compared to previous meetings between the industry and politicians. 

Six CEOs from leading crypto companies spent five hours speaking with members of Congress to field their questions on the fast-growing market. 

The conversation bounced between Bitcoin’s environmental impact, the future of Coinbase’s lending product (which was halted after the SEC threatened to sue the company), and even the threat that quantum computing could pose to cryptocurrencies. 

And while many Congresspeople were welcoming of the industry and its developments, the meteoric rise of a cryptocurrency based on a soundbite from the hearing may not go over as warmly.