In this post:
- Following the display of an image on Reddit that suggested the meme might be plagiarized, Chillguy (CHILLGUY) experienced a temporary decline in price.
- Others displayed proof of AI picture modification, while Phillip Banks, the image’s creator, alluded to being the original inventor.
- Two new memes that arose from the issue are RELAXBOY and CHILLDOG, both of which continue to trade extremely volatile and with little liquidity.
One of the most popular memes in recent days, Chillguy (CHILLGUY), began to decline after it was discovered that its primary image was stolen. Following the news, CHILLGUY’s decline from mid-December continued, falling from $0.19 to $0.17.
Chillguy continued to lose money, going from $0.19 to $0.17 in a matter of minutes. Following a string of social media posts demonstrating proof that the meme’s primary image was lifted from a booklet distributed in Thailand, the price action followed.
The initial image, which pointed to a single image of the booklet page, was shared on Reddit. The veracity of the evidence was called into question due to the absence of additional photographs or information. The pamphlet’s versions also differ from one another.
Some claim the published image is from Thailand and was printed eight years ago, while others point to a publication in Vietnam six years ago. Overall, the controversy is creating additional social media hype around the token, where some hype up the plagiarism, while others believe the entire story is to create more FUD around the token.
Chillguy was once thought to be the original work of cartoonist Phillip Banks. When it came to using the image, Banks was sensitive and even planned to take legal action to safeguard his creation. In spite of this, the picture was popular on TikTok and was used as the avatar for a number of other meme tokens.
There are up to 30 variations of CHILLGUY or comparable tickers that are active on Base, Solana, and Ethereum. Finding out what constitutes plagiarism on social media has an impact on the main version.
Still the original CHILLGUY?
Some questioned if the character was actually plagiarized, citing reports that it was lifted from a Vietnamese pamphlet published six years prior. Since they could not find any more proof, skeptics speculated that the image might have been altered or produced by artificial intelligence.
Phillip Banks has posted an Instagram image suggesting the suspicions are unfounded and the plagiarism is based on a faked image. Banks has not communicated through X to explicitly refute the claims and rarely pays attention to the meme community.
The story was appealing enough that some of the large influencer accounts repeated the message of suspected plagiarism. Others found evidence that Banks denied all claims, while the image raised red flags of being AI-generated.
Others noted that the booklet is not actually years old, and may be printed after the creation of Chillguy. In fact, when showing the reverse image search, Google indexes the age of subreddits, and not the image itself, which may be more recently printed.
CHILLGUY controversy produces new meme token
According to the original claims of plagiarism, the booklet called the character ‘Relax Boy’. This is just the name that the meme market needed, immediately launching RELAXBOY on Solana. The token graduated to Raydium and is already in price discovery mode.
In just a few hours, RELAXBOY has already experienced a 700X rally and a 67% crash. Even if the token is starting a social media movement, the new asset currently only has $232K in locked liquidity. CHILLGUY whales purchased the coin within hours of its introduction. The image’s real verification is less significant to traders.
TikTok may also be a major player in the meme token market, as seen by the photos and speculations that are spreading on the social media platform.
Playing on the buzz around altered illustrations, the market also manufactured Just a Chill Dog (CHILLDOG), as if RELAXBOY wasn’t enough. Although both RELAXBOY and the new asset have the potential to spark social media movements and increase in value, they are equally dangerous.
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