Peanut the Squirrel (PNUT) is a Solana memecoin launched in November 2024 to memorialize P'Nut, a rescued pet squirrel euthanized by New York State officials days before the US presidential election. The token carries a fixed supply of 1 billion, no team allocation, no treasury and no protocol underneath it, so its price tracks public attention to a single story rather than any cash flow. As of September 2026, PNUT trades near $0.047 with a market capitalization around $47 million, roughly 98% below the $2.44 all-time high it set on 13 November 2024.
That gap between the peak and the present is the whole education. PNUT is one of the cleanest case studies in crypto of how fast a narrative asset gets repriced once the news cycle that created it ends.
The Week That Created PNUT
The chain of events ran quickly:
- 30 October 2024: New York's Department of Environmental Conservation searched a property in Chemung County and seized Peanut, a squirrel raised indoors for seven years, along with a raccoon named Fred.
- 1 November 2024: Both animals were euthanized for rabies testing. Both tested negative.
- Early November 2024: The story reached a following in the hundreds of thousands on Instagram, then jumped to mainstream news, and traders on Solana minted PNUT as a memorial ticker.
- 13 November 2024: PNUT peaked at $2.44, according to CoinGecko data.
Two things made the launch unusually potent. The first was timing: the seizure landed five days before a US election in which government overreach was already a live argument, so the squirrel became political shorthand within hours. The second was the absence of a villain to negotiate with. There was no company to boycott and no product to refund, so the outrage went looking for an outlet, and a ticker was the outlet available.
Memecoins built on a news event usually decay along with the coverage. PNUT differed in one respect: the underlying story kept producing new chapters, first through litigation and then through legislation, which gave the token a slower burn than most event coins.
How the Token Actually Works
PNUT is an SPL token on Solana with no smart-contract machinery of its own. It was created through a bonding-curve launch on Pump.fun, the platform that dominated Solana memecoin issuance through 2024 and 2025, and it inherited that launch model's standard properties.
What the contract allows matters more than usual here, because there is nothing else to analyze:
Fixed supply. One billion tokens were minted at creation, with roughly 999.84 million circulating as of September 2026. Mint authority was revoked, so no additional tokens can appear.
Burned liquidity. The initial liquidity pool tokens were destroyed at launch, which removes the most common exit scam in the category.
No transfer tax. Sends and swaps cost nothing beyond Solana's base network fee, a fraction of a cent, and settle in under a second.
The flip side is equally clear. There is no staking, no fee switch, no governance vote and no revenue accruing to holders. Supply is static, so every move in price comes from the demand side alone. That makes PNUT a purer sentiment instrument than something like BONK, which at least routes value through burns and ecosystem programs.
What Actually Moves the Price
Four inputs explain most of PNUT's range since launch.
Attention is the first and largest. Search interest, social mentions and news coverage of the Peanut case map closely onto volume spikes, and the token has repeatedly moved on headlines that had nothing to do with crypto. Legal milestones are the second: the owners' claim against New York State, filed in the Court of Claims and seeking $10 million, keeps the story alive in a way no marketing budget could buy.
Legislation is the third and the most underrated. New York Assembly Bill A7388, known as Peanut's Law, would require a hearing before a sanctuary animal is seized and a 72-hour hold before euthanasia. It was introduced in March 2025 and remained in committee as of early 2026. Any floor movement is a headline this holder base is primed to trade.
The fourth is plain market beta. PNUT is a high-volatility Solana asset, so it amplifies moves in SOL and in memecoin risk appetite generally. When Solana launch activity contracted sharply through the first half of 2026, with token graduation rates and network fee revenue both falling by roughly 80% or more from January levels, PNUT traded down with the category regardless of its own news.
PNUT by the Numbers
| Metric | Value (September 2026) |
|---|---|
| Price | ~$0.047 |
| Market capitalization | ~$47 million |
| Market cap rank | Around #479 |
| Circulating supply | 999.84 million |
| Max supply | 1 billion |
| Market cap / FDV | 1.00 |
| All-time high | $2.44 (13 Nov 2024) |
| Drawdown from high | ~98% |
The ratio worth noting is market cap to fully diluted valuation. At 1.00 there is no unlock overhang and no future dilution, which is rare in crypto and the strongest structural argument the token has. Everything that will ever exist already trades.
Risks Worth Pricing In
Attention decays faster than supply
A fixed supply protects against dilution and does nothing about demand. The float that made PNUT a multi-billion-dollar asset in November 2024 is the same float supporting a $47 million asset today. Nothing about the token changed, only how many people cared.
Liquidity is thinner than the headline suggests
Daily volume has run roughly between $9 million and $27 million during 2026, which sounds healthy against a $47 million cap until a position needs to exit into a falling market. Size positions against realistic exit liquidity rather than against the market cap figure.
The story has an endpoint
Litigation resolves. Bills pass or die in committee. When the Peanut case reaches its conclusion, whatever that conclusion is, the token loses its renewable source of headlines. That is a structural risk no memecoin roadmap can offset, and it is the most important thing to understand before holding PNUT beyond a trade.
Common Questions About PNUT
What is PNUT crypto?
PNUT is a Solana-based memecoin created in November 2024 in memory of Peanut the Squirrel, a pet squirrel euthanized by New York State authorities. It has a one billion fixed supply, no utility and no development team, and it exists as a tradable expression of a viral news story.
Who created the PNUT token?
PNUT was created anonymously by community traders on Solana in the days after the squirrel's death, using a public bonding-curve launch. Peanut's owner and his sanctuary did not issue the token and do not control it, which is standard for memorial memecoins.
Does PNUT have any utility?
No. PNUT has no staking, no governance, no fee sharing and no application built on it. Its value comes entirely from secondary-market demand, which is why it trades more like a sentiment index than like a protocol token.
Why is PNUT down so far from its all-time high?
PNUT fell roughly 98% from its November 2024 peak because the news cycle that created the demand faded and the wider Solana memecoin market contracted sharply through 2025 and 2026. With a static supply and no revenue, a decline in attention translates directly into a decline in price.
Is PNUT still actively traded?
Yes. PNUT continues to trade with eight-figure daily volume across spot and perpetual futures markets as of September 2026, and it remains one of the more liquid memorial memecoins on Solana. Liquidity is concentrated in USDT pairs.
What Keeps PNUT on Trading Screens
PNUT survived the phase that kills most event coins. Two years after launch it still has real volume, a recognizable ticker and a story with unresolved legal and legislative threads. That combination is rare in a category where the median token is worthless within weeks, and it is why PNUT keeps appearing in Solana memecoin screeners alongside older names like dogwifhat.
What it lacks is any mechanism to create value on its own. Holding PNUT is a bet that public attention returns to a specific American news story, and it should be sized that way. Anyone keeping tokens outside an exchange should also read up on Solana wallet options before moving size on-chain.
Ready to take a position? Buy PNUT on the spot market or trade PNUT perpetual futures with leverage on LeveX. More token breakdowns are in Crypto in a Minute.