Australian digital artist Rhett Dashwood (username Mankind) created a meme cryptocurrency that unexpectedly grew to a $200 million market cap using only ChatGPT and $69. In 2023, he asked ChatGPT: “How to create a ‘great token’?” setting strict rules: it must be legal, nearly zero cost, and aim to enter the top 300 on CoinGecko. ChatGPT provided a complete roadmap—choosing a catchy name, designing a meme-worthy mascot, building a community, establishing governance rules, generating blockchain code, and more. Dashwood made the entire chat record public, positioning the project as an AI-driven, community-funded experiment.
For the mascot design, he presented multiple AI-generated candidate images to the community for voting, with TurboToad (涡轮蟾蜍) winning. Since he only had $69, early supporters paid small amounts to acquire tokens, about 50 people participated, forming the initial funding pool. The project had no team, no presale, no marketing, yet it exploded in popularity because of the bizarre story of a “token created entirely by AI” spreading rapidly on X.
Within 48 hours of launch, Turbo’s market cap hit $1 million; two weeks later, it surpassed $200 million. On-chain activity surged, decentralized exchanges listed it proactively, and the number of holders doubled daily. Some users even claimed to have gained life-changing profits.
Turbo’s success wasn’t driven by technology or capital, but by emotion and transparency. Dashwood presented himself as a down-to-earth creator, letting the community decide the direction. “One person + one AI + $69” storytelling was irresistible on the internet. Many invested not for the functionality but to be part of the story.
Although his later experimental project “Clown” sparked controversy, Turbo revealed a larger shift: if anyone can create with AI, and everything is openly transparent on-chain, do we still need intermediaries or even trust?
If you had an AI as a partner, what would you create?
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