A Florida man seeking publicity for his meme cryptocurrency has ended up in hospital with third-degree burns, after a fireworks stunt went horribly wrong.
The rap musician and aspiring crypto baron, who goes by the name Mikol, launched his currency ‘Truth or Dare’ ($DARE) on the Solana platform last week. Known as a ‘meme coin’, any value the currency may have comes from public attention.
On Wednesday, Mikol doused himself with alcohol and launched a ‘Roman Candle War’ with several friends to mark the launch of the coin. The stunt involved the crypto developer’s friends shooting flares at him and each other.
Inevitably, one of the flares hit Mikol and set the flammable liquid ablaze.
Some of the artist’s friends tried to put out the fire, but the only things they had on hand were bottles of water, which were useless.
As Mikol screamed in pain, the cameras kept rolling. The livestream did not stop until they reached the hospital.
Initial reports said that Mikol had suffered third-degree burns over 35% of his body and was in a coma. By Friday, however, a friend said he was “healing and doing physical therapy.”
Mikol himself was back on X (formerly Twitter), posting that he was “never giving up” on $DARE.
“It ain’t nun to heal ‘n stream again, momma ain’t raise no b*tch,” he said.
The crypto developer community has condemned Mikol’s stunt as unethical at best and possibly illegal. Because the cryptocurrency markets in the US are largely unregulated, such risky behavior could end up setting a dangerous precedent for future meme coin marketing campaigns, leading to more injuries and even death.