Dead Dad Coin: Why an Artist Funneled His Grief Into a Meme Token

Strange things have happened in the meme coin space in recent months. We've seen a Solana developer end up in the hospital with third-degree burns trying to boost his coin, purported incest used to induce traders to pump a price, and rappers and reality TV stars launching their own tokens. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Thousands of wild tickers inspired by dogs, cats, presidential candidates, and more are emerging daily, but one in particular—bluntly and somewhat morbidly named "Dead Dad Coin"—stands out with a backstory that comes across as less of a stunt than it might appear on the surface.

Artist NFN Kalyan—which stands for No First Name Kalyan, which he said is now his legal name—started minting NFTs back in 2020, and created the Solana meme coin Dead Dad Coin (DDC) in honor of his late father. The coin sits at a market cap of $1.2 million at the time of writing, after reaching an all-time high of $4.1 million in July.

You may have come across one of the countless memes featuring "Dead Dad" photoshopped into various pop culture references, internet trends, and more. Now he’s a meme coin too.

“I think right off the bat, people are drawn in by the fact that it’s ridiculous. It's a ridiculous idea, and I get that,” NFN Kalyan told Decrypt. “But there is another layer to things, which is more than just that this is shocking, silly, or hilarious. There's something else to it.”

NFN Kalyan is referring to the genuine relationship he had with his dad, which he hopes to honor—not mock—in a way that he believes his father would have appreciated.

In August 2020, NFN Kalyan said that his father went for a walk and suffered a heart attack, collapsing and passing away instantly. The loss deeply impacted him, he wrote in a Twitter thread alongside the coin launch, leading to months of intense grieving during which he often cried in his sleep.

He expressed that grief through art, including the "Requiem for My Father" series and a 1-of-1 photo NFT of his father's body, which pay tribute to his father's memory and explore the impact of his loss.

For the single-edition photo NFT of his father's body, he deleted the photo from his phone after minting it, allowing someone else to own what he considers the only legitimate copy. NFN Kalyan emphasizes the shared human experience behind his art.

"When I say my dad is dead and I have a feeling about it, there is a human empathy,” he tweeted. “It’s a shared human experience. This is not a meme based around a dog or a silly drawing.”

NFN Kalyan hopes that members of the crypto community can find an element of emotional connection through his project. He also believes that his father would have found Dead Dad Coin hilarious and invites everyone to contribute.

"We are all in this together,” he said. “Let’s make something that’s alive."

NFN Kalyan focuses on the art and creative side, while his co-founders help execute the business side. According to the team, 11.5% of the token supply was burnt (or effectively destroyed), 6% is for marketing, and 3% is saved for future expenses. Data from Bubblemaps shows the exact breakdown of which wallets hold the most supply.

Art and finance are inextricably intertwined, and nowhere is that clearer than in the crypto world. But while they may both be tokens on a blockchain, a piece of visual art represented by an NFT is bound to hit people differently than a token with a name like “Dead Dad Coin.”

Asked why he didn’t just leave his tribute as a visual art piece, but rather decided to market it and create a team and make it a business, he explained that he believes a meme coin has a chance to reach far more people while still spreading his message.

“My thought was that in all of art, you want an audience. If you write a book, you want it to sell a million copies,” NFN Kalyan replied. “If we do it right, if we do it well, then we can have a big audience paying attention to this art project—to this really interesting thing that we're doing. And that's really what's led to the business side of it even existing.”

And while the price of DDC has dropped in recent weeks alongside the rest of the market, particularly many meme coins, NFN Kalyan said that he plans to continue pushing it for a long time to come given the personal connection that spawned the token.

“It's an evolving project that can truly go on forever. I'm thinking about IRL events, I'm thinking about all types of things,” he replied. “It's so close to my heart.”

Edited by Andrew Hayward

Editor's note: This story was updated after publication to clarify the artist's name.