The crypto community, especially some dealing with meme coins, has a strange sense of humor and often tries to capitalize on events that pose real danger to humanity.
The hantavirus, which killed some people on a cruise ship recently, is just another example. Meme coins related to the infection have already begun to surface, while certain market observers believe a potential outbreak could actually be a bullish factor for the crypto sector.
A Blessing in Disguise?
The conflict in the Middle East has recently been overshadowed by other major news – the hantavirus, which has so far claimed the lives of three people. A Dutch-flagged cruise ship that departed from Argentina and traveled through the Atlantic Ocean experienced an infection cluster of the Andes strain, which first appeared when a Dutch passenger fell ill and later died on board.
Several others disembarked at St. Helena and other locations, and some developed symptoms after flying home, leading to additional deaths and hospitalizations. The ship eventually reached Cape Verde and later the Canary Islands, while multiple countries, such as the USA and the UK, isolated former passengers due to the virus’s rare ability to spread between people. What makes the situation even more concerning is that the infection (which was likely transmitted from rats) has a mortality rate of around 40%.
And while the world hopes this doesn’t turn into a new COVID-19 disaster (or even worse), some members of the crypto community reacted rather strangely to the threat. X users idontpaytaxes and edward, for instance, assumed that a potential outbreak of the hantavirus could shut down everything, triggering “a meme coin supercycle.”
For their part, the one using the moniker Orange hopes this infection won’t spread and push the world into another lockdown. Should that happen, though, they suggested that “crypto volume would probably go absolutely crazy” because everyone will be stuck at home and looking for distractions.
In light of recent events, it is important to remind how the market reacted to the coronavirus at the beginning of 2020. In mid-March that year, the World Health Organization declared the spread of the disease a global pandemic, causing Bitcoin to crash by around 50%. However, the primary cryptocurrency quickly recovered from the knockdown and in the following years experienced a major bull run.
Another thing savvy crypto enthusiasts tend to do during such unsettling periods is launch trending meme coins to earn quick gains. Data show that tokens like HANTA (whose logos feature rodents) have already popped up, with some amassing market caps in the millions.
Over the years, meme coin creators have even capitalized on the deaths of public figures, including Hulk Hogan and Queen Elizabeth, to make easy money.
COVID-19 2.0 or Not?
The hantavirus is indeed much more dangerous than the coronavirus, which crippled normal functioning worldwide in the early 2020s. It kills 4 out of 10 infected people, while the original COVID-19 strain had a fatality rate of roughly 1%.
However, the hantavirus is far less contagious than the other infection, as it requires very close, prolonged contact with a diseased person to transmit it. Additionally, people can mainly spread the virus only when they are very sick, not before symptoms.
The World Health Organization recently insisted that the risk of the hantavirus spreading into a deadly global outbreak is “absolutely low.” The topic reached the White House, too, with President Donald Trump assuring that “it’s very much, we hope, under control.”
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