On September 2, an unusual surge occurred in the U.S. market: shares of the Chinese company Farmmi, which specializes in agricultural product supplies, jumped more than 300% at one point — from $0.1187 to $0.50 per share. The driver of this rally was not corporate earnings, but a genuine meme frenzy that swept through the on-chain space of Robinhood Chain around the JINQIAN and FAMI tokens.
However, by the end of the session, the euphoria partially evaporated: shares closed at $0.1501, which still represents a gain of 26.45%. The volume is also notable: daily turnover reached 867.2 million shares, compared to a modest 5.76 million the day before. This is a classic sign of a speculative attack, not fundamental interest.
The mushroom trail in the token's name
The connection between the meme coin and the real business turned out to be almost absurdly simple. Farmmi, among other things, sells dried mushrooms, and its annual report mentions the shiitake variety Jinqian — the "money mushroom." It was precisely this association that degenerates from crypto Twitter latched onto, launching the JINQIAN token on Robinhood Chain.
Within just one hour, the market capitalization of the newly minted asset soared to $70 million. One trader, based on my observations of on-chain data, converted 8 ETH (~$19,000) into JINQIAN, then exited the position for 82.54 ETH (~$198,000), locking in a profit of about $179,000. Impressive returns, but it is precisely such stories that attract the crowd that forgets about the risks.
The scandalous trail: an AI-generated post
The launch was preceded by a viral post from a trader under the pseudonym Rune, who claimed to have purchased 37.4% of the shares of a certain Nasdaq company for $1.8 million. He promised to tokenize the shares on Robinhood Chain to trigger a short squeeze. The community quickly identified Farmmi based on the parameters — a market cap of about $4.8 million, a price of $0.12, and high short interest.
However, after the rally began, Rune disavowed his own words, stating that the post was generated by the Claude neural network and that all the figures were "fabricated or exaggerated." He also denied any involvement in the issuance of FAMI and JINQIAN. This situation is a vivid example of how even unreliable information, delivered at the right moment, can move markets.
FAMI — not what it seems
It is important to emphasize: the FAMI token that appeared on Robinhood Chain merely replicates Farmmi's ticker but is not an official Robinhood instrument. The platform's documentation lists the contract addresses of all legitimate tokenized assets, and FAMI is not among them. The issuance amounted to 37.43 million tokens, which matches the number of shares outstanding, but there is no redemption mechanism. Buying this token grants no rights to the company's actual shares.
Moreover, 38% of the issuance went to the user who deployed the contract at its creation, and the pair had no liquidity lock. These are classic red flags indicating a high risk of manipulation and "rug pull" schemes.
Nasdaq warning and fundamental problems
Farmmi itself is in a precarious position. On August 11, Nasdaq sent the company a notice of violation of the minimum price requirement: shares traded below $1 for 30 consecutive sessions. The deadline for remediation is February 8, 2027, when the price must hold above $1 for ten consecutive days.
Financial metrics also leave much to be desired: for fiscal year 2025, revenue fell from $64.1 million to $28 million, while net loss grew from $4.6 million to $53.4 million. At the same time, the company is trying to diversify by developing warehousing and logistics services in the U.S.
This episode is yet another reminder of how meme culture is penetrating traditional markets. However, I see here not so much a new trend as a one-off speculative flare-up fueled by information noise. Investors should be extremely cautious: behind flashy stories of quick profits often lie empty promises and a lack of real connection to the underlying assets.