Forehead tattoos and alcohol dares: Inside the dark underbelly of crypto's memecoin craze

MarketsShareShare this articleCopy linkX iconX (Twitter)LinkedInFacebookEmailForehead tattoos and alcohol dares: Inside the dark underbelly of crypto's memecoin crazeUsers are being paid to shave their heads, chug liquor and interview homeless people on camera, raising questions about whether Pump.fun's latest product rewards creativity or exploitation.By Shaurya Malwa|Edited by Aoyon Ashraf Jun 8, 2026, 10:58 p.m. 4 min readMake preferred on What to know: A user called Arivu says he fulfilled a Pump.fun GO bounty by tattooing the misspelled ticker “$boutywork” on his forehead, sparking backlash over the platform’s new incentive system.The typo itself became a tradable Solana token, BOUTYWORK, which quickly reached a market value of more than $600,000, over $3.5 million in 24-hour volume and thousands of holders.The episode highlights how meme coin incentives can rapidly turn online jokes into irreversible real-world actions, often leaving the people performing dangerous stunts with less upside than those trading the resulting tokens.Memecoin issuance platform Pump.fun’s new bounty product has produced its first controversy.A user posting as Arivu on X said he completed a Pump.fun GO bounty last week that asked someone to tattoo the ticker “$boutywork” on their forehead and provide video proof. The task appeared to reference a token called $Bountywork, but the bounty description itself used the misspelled version “$boutywork.”Arivu said he followed the task exactly.“Guys I have followed everything exactly what the name mentioned in the line,” he wrote on X, adding that it was not his mistake because he tattooed the exact name mentioned by the bounty creator. “Please i gave my life,” he wrote.Guys I have followed everything exactly what the name mentioned in the line Its not my mistake I tattoo on my forehead the exact name what @ayushquantt fam mentioned I believe @Pumpfun team review it correctly Please i gave my life😭$Bountywork #TATTOOontheforehead #tattoo ht…

Forehead tattoos and alcohol dares: Inside the dark underbelly of crypto's memecoin craze

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