Banana stuck on wall, art and fruit combo concept meme coin Ban—can you hop on board?
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Banana stuck on wall, art and fruit combo concept meme coin Ban—can you hop on board?
Riding on both the "Sotheby's auction" and the "SpaceX Starship."
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsWritten by: Asher, Odaily Planet Daily
This morning, Justin Sun announced that he purchased Maurizio Cattelan's iconic artwork "Comedian" for $6.2 million, commenting, "This is not just a piece of art; it represents a cultural phenomenon connecting the worlds of art, memes, and the crypto community. I believe this work will inspire more reflection and discussion in the future and become part of history."
Sotheby's auction site for Cattelan's banana artwork
Following this news, according to GMGN data, the meme coin Ban—associated with the Cattelan banana and listed on Binance Futures—surged approximately 20% within five minutes, briefly pushing its market cap above $230 million. However, due to broader pullbacks in the meme sector, Ban has since pulled back to a market cap of $175 million.
Ban price chart
Prior to this, Elon Musk retweeted on X a photo posted by Polaris’ content director featuring a large Banana sculpture alongside SpaceX’s Starship, responding with a “laughing-crying” emoji. This caused Ban to spike nearly 20% in a short period.
Elon Musk retweets photo of large Banana sculpture next to SpaceX Starship
In addition, GSR Markets may be acting as a market maker for the meme token BAN. According to on-chain analyst Ai Yi, the GSR wallet GNjGn...4iBW4 (already flagged by Arkham) withdrew 1.5 million BAN from Gate and MEXC on November 18, later depositing part of these funds into Kucoin. Another wallet, G13si...zWCdu, deposited BAN worth $2.28 million into GATE, with the required SOL for the transaction provided by GSR.
Withdrew 1.5 million BAN from Gate and MEXC, then partially deposited into Kucoin
Riding momentum from Sotheby’s auction buzz, association with SpaceX Starship launches, listing on Binance, and potential market-making support from GSR Markets, the meme coin Ban has frequently attracted high attention and engagement, accumulating multiple favorable catalysts. But what kind of staying power does it really have? Next, Odaily Planet Daily will explore the origins and development of Ban.
Sotheby’s Vice President Caught Launching Meme Coin Ban from Personal Address
On the evening of October 25, Michael Bouhanna, Vice President at Sotheby’s, posted on X announcing that the artwork "banana and duct tape" would be auctioned at Sotheby’s. Shortly after, users discovered that a related meme coin named Ban had been issued from his personal address, causing its market cap to rapidly surge to $7 million.
Michael Bouhanna announces that the artwork "banana and duct tape" will be auctioned at Sotheby’s
However, Bouhanna soon deleted the post containing his personal address, triggering an 85% drop in Ban’s price. Nevertheless, as a meme coin combining both art and fruit themes, Ban quickly gained traction within the community and its market cap continued to climb.
Data monitored by Lookonchain on October 27 showed that one user turned $1,795 into $873,000 trading Ban over just two days—a return of 490x. Instead of panic-selling all holdings at once, he gradually sold portions after each price rise, avoiding missing out on further rebounds.
Yet on October 27, according to Lookonchain, Michael Bouhanna, Vice President at Sotheby’s, used his wallet “5W7U...b3cV” (which he had previously publicly acknowledged as his personal address before deleting the post) to launch the meme coin Ban. Although under pressure he later burned all 37.36 million Ban tokens held in that wallet, analysis revealed that he had used internal wallets to buy Ban and profited over $1 million. After this news spread, Ban’s market cap plummeted from a peak of $100 million to $10 million within two days—a decline exceeding 90%.
Sotheby’s VP: I Deployed the Project, But I Never Sold
A week later, the individual confirmed he personally deployed the project. On November 4, Michael Bouhanna, Vice President at Sotheby’s, posted on X addressing widespread rumors about the meme token BAN he created, which had led to significant misunderstandings and misinformation.
Bouhanna clarified that BAN was a personal initiative launched by him on Pump.Fun out of interest, entirely unrelated to his role at Sotheby’s, and that Sotheby’s had no involvement whatsoever. Initially released anonymously, he did not anticipate the rapid growth driven by the community, nor did he promote or encourage others to buy it. He explained that the idea for Ban stemmed from his interpretation of the "Comedian" artwork, serving as a satirical commentary on meme-driven crypto markets. Furthermore, he emphasized that recent claims suggesting he made $1 million in profit were completely false—the wallets cited were not his, and most of the gains reported were unrealized.
With Bouhanna now acknowledging authorship, discussions within the Ban community became even more active, generating numerous new ideas for promoting Ban. On one hand, Ban represents an interesting experiment in tokenizing capital through blockchain, infused with global artistic and cultural significance, being literally “a banana.” It is a novel meme coin combining art and fruit concepts. On the other hand, Ban symbolizes the beginning of a new wave of memes, bringing more Web2 traffic into Web3.
Is Ban Still Worth Jumping Into Now?
Today, following Justin Sun's successful acquisition of "Comedian," short-term speculative enthusiasm may noticeably cool down. In recent days, most popular meme coins have seen price corrections exceeding 30%, making current price direction highly uncertain.
However, as a meme coin, the image of “a banana taped to a wall” is inherently viral and easy to propagate. Moreover, having already ridden the hype of both the “Sotheby’s auction” and “SpaceX Starship,” Ban maintains ongoing relevance and discussion potential, making it likely to resurface again in the future. Therefore, in my personal view, Ban is worth adding to your “watchlist of favorite meme coins.” Keep a close eye daily on large buying addresses, as there might emerge a “second entry opportunity.”
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