On September 2, an interesting episode occurred on the American Nasdaq exchange, which once again demonstrates how closely the worlds of traditional finance and on-chain speculation have become intertwined. Shares of the Chinese agricultural supplier Farmmi (ticker FAMI) soared more than 300% at one point—from $0.1187 to $0.50 per share. The reason for such a sharp move was the hype surrounding the meme coin JINQIAN, launched on Robinhood Chain.
However, by the close of the trading session, the euphoria had evaporated: the final price was $0.1501, corresponding to a gain of 26.45%. Trading volume was colossal—$867.2 million compared to a modest $5.76 million the day before. This is a classic example of how on-chain hype creates an illusion of liquidity in the real sector, while the company's fundamentals remain unchanged.
Where the "money mushroom" came from
The name of the JINQIAN token is no coincidence. In Farmmi's annual report, a variety of shiitake mushroom called Jinqian is mentioned, which literally translates as "money mushroom." It was this product that became the central element of the narrative for the meme coin launched on Robinhood Chain. The asset's market capitalization reached $70 million within the first hour of trading.
The luckiest speculators managed to make a tidy profit. According to Lookonchain, one trader invested 8 ETH (about $19,000) and sold the position for 82.54 ETH (approximately $198,000), locking in a profit of $179,000. At the same time, trading volume in the JINQIAN/FAMI pair approached $88 million in less than three hours.
An AI-generated post as a catalyst
The key trigger for all of this was a statement by a crypto trader under the pseudonym Rune. He claimed to have spent $1.8 million to acquire 37.4% of the shares of an unnamed Nasdaq-listed company with a market capitalization of about $4.8 million. However, after the rally began, Rune unexpectedly stated that the post was created by the neural network Claude at his request, and all the figures were "fabricated or exaggerated." The trader also denied any involvement in the issuance of the FAMI and JINQIAN tokens.
This is an extremely important point: we are witnessing a situation where AI-generated content becomes a catalyst for real market movements. Community members matched the parameters from the post to Farmmi, and that was enough to trigger a speculative wave.
FAMI—not what it seems
The FAMI token that appeared on Robinhood Chain merely replicated the ticker of the Nasdaq company but was not an official Stock Token from Robinhood. The platform's documentation lists the contract addresses of all legitimate tokenized assets, and FAMI is not on that list. The issuance amounted to 37.43 million tokens—exactly the same number of Farmmi shares in circulation. Of these, 38% were allocated to the address of the user who deployed the contract upon creation, which is suspiciously close to Rune's claimed 37.4%.
It is critically important to understand: FAMI lacked a minting and redemption mechanism tying the token to real securities. Purchasing this asset did not grant the right to acquire Farmmi shares on Nasdaq. Moreover, the trading pair had no liquidity lock, creating additional risks for participants.
Nasdaq warning and financial problems
It is worth noting that prior to this surge, Farmmi shares were in deep depression. On August 11, Nasdaq sent the company a notice of violation of the minimum price requirement—the shares had traded below $1 for 30 consecutive sessions. The firm was given until February 8, 2027, to rectify the situation.
Farmmi's financial position leaves much to be desired: for fiscal year 2025, revenue more than halved—from $64.1 million to $28 million—while the net loss grew from $4.6 million to $53.4 million. The company is also trying to diversify through warehousing and logistics services in the United States, but so far this has not yielded tangible results.
My comment: This story is a vivid example of how a narrative created with the help of AI can manipulate the market in the short term. However, investors should remember: a meme coin not backed by real assets is pure speculation, and rallies on such news usually end as quickly as they begin. Farmmi's fundamental problems have not gone away, and without real business improvement, the share price is unlikely to hold at the achieved levels.