Ghibli-themed memecoin rallies 35,000% as Musk and Ripple execs join latest trend

Ghibli-inspired memecoins on Solana have taken off in the past day, thanks to a wave of Studio Ghibli-style images shared by ChatGPT users on social media.

On March 25, OpenAI launched image generation for its ChatGPT-4o model, prompting users to generate artwork in the iconic style of Studio Ghibli, known for popular anime films like Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman introduced the update by sharing an image of himself and his team in Ghibli style. He described the release as “a new high-water mark” for creative freedom, noting that users will likely produce both inspiring and potentially controversial content with the tool.

Shortly after, tech tycoon Elon Musk and the owner of rival AI company Grok joined in on the trend, sharing an image of himself as a monkey holding up the DOGE mascot. The billionaire entrepreneur with over 219.7 million followers on X has a long history of boosting DOGE with his social media posts.

Ripple executives David Schwartz and Brad Garlinghouse also posted a portrait of themselves generated by the model.

While these high-profile players jumping on the Ghibli trend didn’t mention any specific memecoins, the hype has already sparked the launch of around 30 Ghibli-themed tokens on Solana, according to DEX Screener.

The biggest one so far, Ghiblification (GHIBLI), has hit a market cap of $21.1 million just 20 hours after launching.

At the time of writing, it was trading at $0.02114, up roughly 35,000% since it first went live. A few hours earlier, it even scored a listing on the centralized exchange CoinEx Global.

Several traders who jumped into Ghibli-themed tokens have shared their experiences on X — with some reporting profits of up to $26,000 and making plans to celebrate, while others expressed regret over selling too early and missing out on bigger gains.

In a March 26 X post, trader Sachs said he’s hoping the memecoin “runs to $100M to bring some hopes into these markets.”

At the time of writing, memecoins collectively command a market cap of over $60 billion. On Dec. 8 last year, the overall memecoin market cap reached a peak of $137 billion. Since then, it has decreased by more than 56%.

However, a recent Truth Social post from President Donald Trump regarding Official Trump, a memecoin launched by the president himself, seemed to have sparked renewed interest in the market, with several tokens posting significant rallies over the past week.