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9 of the weirdest crypto projects, from Dentacoin to Cthulu  

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The cryptocurrency industry is very, very weird.

What would you expect from an industry founded by cypherpunks and embraced in its early days by privacy and cryptology idealists, software geeks, anarcho-capitalists and disenchanted Ron Paul voters? 

As crypto grew and creating new cryptocurrencies became ever easier during the initial coin offering (ICO) era, no idea was too stupid or left-field to ignore. And that’s before creating a memecoin could be done at the touch of a button, resulting in millions of coins that don’t even have an idea.

It would be impossible to make an exhaustive list of all the weird crypto projects out there, but here are a few favorites: 

1. Crypto cavity, Dentacoin

 Founded in 2017, the Dentacoin Foundation and its eponymous cryptocurrency aimed to streamline the modern dental industry. The Ethereum-based Dentacoin (DCN) token was supposed to become a “utility token, used for rewards, payments, and exchange within and beyond the dental industry,” according to the Netherlands-based project’s white paper.For practitioners, the token was said to be a means of payment for materials, equipment, and other services, while patients could earn it by taking oral health surveys, providing practitioner reviews and tracking and maintaining oral health practices.

The ultimate goal was to speed up medical payments, which can often take a lot of time and involve a lot of red tape.

Like many tokens with niche use cases, the DCN price spiked on release and then flatlined. As of Aug. 24, the project’s market capitalization was just $235,000, failing to meet its lofty ambitions of disrupting the dental industry with blockchain.

You may want some novocaine for that.

2. Lovecraftian cult worships Cthulu with crypto

Cthulu, the monster of H.P. Lovecraft’s eldritch horror stories, is an “Old One” of evil and terrifying power that the human mind cannot comprehend. The purpose of the Cthulu (FHTAGN) token seems just as incomprehensible. Originally appearing on online forums in 2013, the token seemed to fulfill no other purpose than to give die-hard crypto and Lovecraft fans something to do and send to each other.

Cthulu emerges from the sea. Source: Andree Wallin

Forum users represented FHTAGN (the ticker itself is a word from the unpronounceable and horrific language of the Old Ones) as part of the religion and mythology surrounding Cthulu, i.e., tokens were “offerings,” holders were “cultists,” and coins were mined through “sacrifice.”

According to the few sites that track it, Cthulu has no measurable market capitalization and a valuation of $0.000032 per token. 

Other Cthulu-related tokens have appeared. The much cuter Cute Cthulu (CTHULU) coin is a Solana-based project that aims to raise awareness and support efforts on sea life and ecology.

In June, the project donated $2,000 to The Ocean Cleanup.

“In His House at R’lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.”

3. SpankChain, Google this one yourself…

If crypto was to be the native money of the internet, then it was only a matter of time before it crossed paths with pornography and adult entertainment. Founded amid the ICO boom, SpankChain enjoyed fairly positive media coverage. It aimed to provide a platform for adult performers to have more control and agency over how they are compensated for their work. The currency was used for payments on Spank.live. Performer Allie Awesome told Cointelegraph Magazine in 2020 that she made a small fortune via the site’s CryptoTitties app. “I like that I get to keep 100% of the payments when I use CryptoTitties, rather than losing 20% or more with fiat payment processors,” she said, adding, “It’s really hard to get non-crypto people to use it.”Despite promotion from famous pornographic performers and millions of dollars in investment, the project ran into some roadblocks in March 2023 and has been largely dormant since. SpankChain had to close its payment processor, SpankPay, after the latter lost its service provider, Wyre, and failed to find a new one. However, according to the SpankPay X page, the project will soon return and is already letting users register usernames. 

4. Trump coins are not winning bigly

While not always a fan of cryptocurrency, former United States President and 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump has been present in the space — in one way or another — for some time now.To date, several cryptocurrencies are explicitly dedicated to Trump and supposedly support his bid to return to the White House. The first, which was initially launched as Trump Coin but has since rebranded to FreedomCoin (FREE), launched in 2016, eight years before he came out in support of the cryptocurrency industry.  The most “successful” — the Solana-based TrumpCoin (DJT) — has a market capitalization of $1.43 million. The project has no official affiliation with the Trump campaign, and infamous “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli alluded to helping create the token. Research firm Arkham Intelligence has even offered a $150,000 bounty to anyone who can definitively prove who started the project.  Rapid price action and speculation on the token suggest it’s likely just a memecoin, capitalizing on the hype around Trump and the US elections. None of the various Trump coins are officially affiliated with Trump’s campaign or organization. However, his presidential campaign does accept crypto donations. Make crypto weird again. 

5. Pot coins drank the bong water

The marijuana industry was no stranger to the ubiquitous bespoke token projects at the ICO boom’s peak. Initially, the weed tokens did actually solve a problem for the US cannabis industry. A weed ban on a federal level meant that any bank with Federal Depositors Insurance (pretty much any bank you’d want to do business with) would not offer services to weed farmers, distributors or dispensaries. Crypto would offer a secure way for all these parties to transact without needing to use a bank or carry around enormous bags of cash. PotCoin (POT), HempCoin (THC) and Cannabis Coin (CANN) all emerged as tokens to cure the industry’s ills. PotCoin even sponsored American basketball star Dennis Rodman, who donned a PotCoin shirt on his notorious trip to Singapore to meet with Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un, which sent the price soaring. However, as some observers noted, even then, these weed coins failed to deliver significant advantages over more established currencies like Bitcoin. All of them now have negligible market capitalization and next to no onchain activity. Really harshes the vibe, man. 

6. At least they were honest: Useless Ethereum Token

The Useless Ethereum Token (UET) is, as its name suggests, useless. UET was initially created as a joke. The project’s website said it had no intended purpose and was not meant to accrue value. As the anonymous creator, UET CEO, told the New York Observer, “I realized that people didn’t really care about the product. They cared about spending a little bit of money, watching a chart and then withdrawing a little bit more money. So why not have an ICO without a product, and do so completely transparently just to see what happened?”According to industry media, the project raised $300,000 in its ICO. It’s unclear what the CEO did with the money, and the token isn’t listed anywhere. Truly useless. 

7. Garlicoin values community and… garlic

Another coin initially created as a joke, Garlicoin still boasts an active community. The coin was founded in early 2018 — another ICO boomer — with a general theme of garlic and garlic bread. On the project’s website, anthropomorphic garlic bulbs and garlic bread slices state that the network has fast and cheap transactions and is resistant to specialized mining equipment like application-specific integrated circuits.

A Garlicoin garlic bulb. Source: Garlicoin

The community is still going strong and is highly dedicated to the project’s garlic-centric identity. In the project’s Discord, a member wished fellow Garlicion (GRLC) holder, “Garlic morning! Garlic afternoon! Garlic night!”Another user suggested a way to get more GRLC holders: “Idea: 1. Invite ‘friends’. 2. Everyone bring their favorite garlic bread version/variety. 3. Everyone gets to enjoy garlic bread. Very nice. 4. Give everyone that shows up a paperwallet with some Garlicoin.”The GRLC price has largely flatlined, but in 2021, the token pumped along with the rest of the market. 

8. One small step for crypto, Mooncoin

Created in 2013, Mooncoin (MOON) was a nod to the crypto community’s belief that their chosen token will go “to the moon.”It was also popular among astronomy buffs, and its maximum token supply of 384 million was a nod to the 384,000-kilometer distance between Earth and the moon.Space-themed marketing and its astronomical references made the coin an odd favorite among holders. The platform never did pre-mining or an ICO and aimed to provide cheap transactions.According to Coinfi, the project has a market capitalization of over $6 million, with a 24-hour volume of only $141. Failure to launch?

9. The OG memecoin, Dogecoin

In 2013, software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer created Dogecoin (DOGE) as a joke, certain that no one would invest in a coin made purely as a nod to a popular meme… right? 

Example of the original Doge meme format. Much outdated. Very 2013. Source: All Things Linguistics

Originally a critique of the highly speculative nature of cryptocurrency, it has become that very thing that its creators wished to criticize.

As of Aug. 20, it has a market capitalization of over $15 billion and an army of fans, including eccentric tech billionaire Elon Musk.

Dogecoin inspired another dog-related coin, Shiba Inu (SHIBA), which was founded in 2020. The pseudonymous “Ryoshi” created the coin as a nod to DOGE, and the idea of a memecoin took flight.

Since then, thousands of strangely named and wildly speculative memecoins have appeared.

Thanks for that, Dogecoin. Stay weird, crypto.