The recent death of Pope Francis has propelled the meme coin inspired by the Vatican’s mascot, LUCE, above 130%. Not only that, more meme coins inspired by the Pope has also popped up on the market.
According to data from meme coin tracking platform GMGN.Ai, the Solana (SOL)-based meme coin called LUCE has gone up as high as 134%. In the past 24 hours, the token reached a daily high of $0.02517. At press time, the meme coin is currently trading hands at around $0.015.
Named after the official mascot of the Holy Year of 2025, LUCE is an unofficial meme coin that was launched at the end of October 2024 after the mascot was unveiled in Vatican. Despite not being linked to the Vatican or the Pope in any way, the meme coin has gained significant popularity among traders.
Two days after its launch, LUCE achieved a market cap surpassing $80 million, making it one of the largest coins created by pump.fun.
The unofficial LUCE meme coin currently has a market cap of around $15 million and a liquidity of $1.8 million. There are currently around 44,750 traders who hold LUCE. The token has accumulated a daily trading volume of at least $40.7 million.
Following its recent surge, the platform has also attached a 100% rug pull probability warning on the token.
LUCE meme coin surges more than 120% following news of Pope Francis’ death, April 21, 2025 | Source: GMGN.Ai
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In the past week, the token has gone down nearly 40%. It had recently received a major boost after the Vatican confirmed Pope Francis had died of double pneumonia on April 21 at around 7:35 AM local time, according to Reuters.
Just a day prior, Pope Francis made his first public appearance since being discharged from a 38-day hospital stay for pneumonia. On Easter Sunday, he offered a special blessing for the first time since Christmas.
Pope Francis’ death has also led to an increase in Solana-based meme coins inspired by the recently-deceased Pope. According to data from GMGN.Ai, a meme coin called Francis was launched just an hour ago, and has gone up more than 115%.
Other meme coins found within the lineup of new tokens include POPE, RIP POPE, and simply RIP with a picture of the deceased-Pope.
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