On Monday, September 2, a rare phenomenon occurred on Nasdaq: shares of Chinese agricultural supplier Farmmi (ticker FAMI) spiked more than 300% at one point—from $0.1187 at the close of the previous session to a peak of $0.50. The reason for such an aggressive rally had nothing to do with the company's fundamentals but lay entirely in on-chain speculation around the meme coin JINQIAN and its associated token FAMI on Robinhood Chain.
By the end of the trading session, the euphoria had partially subsided: the shares closed at $0.1501, which still represents a gain of 26.45%. However, the key indicator of the anomaly was trading volume. It surged to 867.2 million shares versus a paltry 5.76 million the day before. This is a classic sign of a panic-driven or, in this case, speculative short squeeze triggered by retail traders from the crypto community.
The connection to the "money mushroom"
The root of the hype lies in the name of the meme coin JINQIAN. Farmmi's product range includes dried mushrooms, and in its annual SEC report, the company mentions a special variety of shiitake called Jinqian, which literally translates to "money mushroom." It was this seemingly insignificant detail from the financial documentation that became the trigger for on-chain meme hunters.
The JINQIAN token, launched on Robinhood Chain, reached a market capitalization of $70 million within the first hour of trading. Based on my observations of Lookonchain data, one trader brilliantly played this wave: investing 8 ETH (~$19,000), they sold the position for 82.54 ETH (~$198,000), locking in a profit of about $179,000—a tenfold return on a single trade. Trading volume in the JINQIAN/FAMI pair, according to estimates by user StarPlatinum, approached $88 million in less than three hours.
Speculative flash mob and its consequences
It is important to understand that this was not spontaneous hype but a well-coordinated attack. A few days earlier, a trader under the pseudonym Rune published a post claiming to have acquired 37.4% of the shares of a Nasdaq-listed company for $1.8 million, describing it as "dead" with high short interest. The community quickly identified the company as Farmmi. However, after the rally began, Rune disavowed his own words, claiming the post was generated by the Claude neural network and the figures were fictitious. Nevertheless, the mechanism had been set in motion.
The key point I want to emphasize for my readers: the FAMI token on Robinhood Chain, which mirrors the stock ticker, is not an official tokenized asset from Robinhood. It has no redemption mechanism linking it to real shares on Nasdaq. The issuance of 37.43 million tokens merely imitates the number of shares outstanding, and 38% of them are held by the contract creator. Buying such an asset is pure zero-sum speculation that grants no rights to the underlying asset.
Fundamental context: Nasdaq warning
Farmmi itself is in a difficult situation. As early as August 11, Nasdaq issued the company a delisting warning due to trading below $1 for 30 consecutive days. The firm was given until February 2027 to rectify the situation. The financial position is also bleak: revenue for fiscal year 2025 fell by more than half—to $28 million—while the net loss grew 11-fold, reaching $53.4 million.
My analysis: This episode is a vivid example of a synthetic short squeeze born at the intersection of meme culture and traditional markets. However, I advise retail investors to exercise extreme caution: such "mushroom" rallies on penny stocks typically end as quickly as they begin, leaving holders of on-chain tokens with empty wallets and useless assets that have no real backing.