Circle Internet Group faced a ticker‑symbol issue when launching on the NYSE.
Circle Internet Group, the American corporation behind stablecoin USDC, has accused the memecoin Just A Circle, with the ticker $CRCL, of brand infringement.
The memecoin Just A Circle ($CRCL) was launched on June 18 on Bonk.Fun. Several days later, members of the memecoin community noticed that Solscan had changed the ticker from $CRCL to “SPL Token.” Solscan added a disclaimer stating “copyrighted or trademarked material without authorization.”
A community member of Just A Circle reached out to Solscan via email and received a reply on July 7. Just A Circle posted on X a screenshot of the reply, which reads: “We are currently investigating an allegation of brand infringement, following a report submitted by Circle and Authorized Representatives.”
Just A Circle tagged Solscan and Circle on X and asked them to review the matter. They wrote, “We are literally just a circle. We urge you to review your false claims and rescind this DMCA.”
This tweet pushed the market cap of Just A Circle ($CRCL) from $500k to $15 million within 15 minutes. At the time of writing, the memecoin’s market cap had dropped to $1.44 million.
Just A Circle is fighting back
An hour ago, Just A Circle posted an AI‑generated video on X mocking Circle Internet Group. In the video, an AI narrator says: “Some people never learned how to play in the sandbox.”
A community member took to Reddit and said that the $CRCL community is fighting back against Circle. He said community members are constantly emailing Solscan about the ticker name change. They’re also emailing Circle employees, including CEO Jeremy Allaire and General Counsel Sarah Wilson.
The community members are also trying to reach out to influential people from the Bonk ecosystem to gain support and spread the word. Another creative strategy is to redirect some of the creator rewards of $CRCL to Jeremy Allaire’s Solana wallet address.
The community member then stated that Circle is a $50 billion corporation trying to draw a line in the sand. He added that Circle’s employees are “TradFi players who are helping to create a new game and establish new rules and precedent that only work to their favor.” On the other hand, blockchain technology is open to everyone.
He said, “We’re talking about a mega-sized crypto company attacking a then $500k market cap memecoin….should such crypto on crypto violence be encouraged or condoned?”
Circle had a ticker problem before
Circle Internet Group went public on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CRCL on June 5. Another company in the oil and gas sector, Corcel PLC, was already using the same ticker symbol, CRCL.
The debut of Circle Internet Group’s CRCL prompted investors to buy Corcel PLC’s CRCL shares by mistake, pushing its price up by 16,689%.
This is not the first time a memecoin has used a copyrighted name or ticker symbol. Many memecoins end up infringing on intellectual property rights.
Last year, a Solana memecoin called CHILLGUY launched using Phillip Banks’s “Chill Guy” artwork. The memecoin’s market capitalization quickly soared to $580 million. The artist said on X “Chill guy has been copyrighted. Like, legally. I’ll be issuing takedowns on for-profit-related things over the next few days.”
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