In a surprising turn of events, Mark Longo, the original owner of Peanut the Squirrel (PNUT), has taken legal action against cryptocurrency exchange Binance for listing the PNUT meme coin. Longo’s legal team has sent cease and desist letters to Binance, alleging that the exchange is infringing on his intellectual property rights by using the image and name of Peanut the Squirrel without authorization.
The controversy began when Binance added the PNUT token to its listings, prompting Longo to issue a warning to the exchange. In a recent post, Longo announced his intention to issue more cease and desist letters to protect his creative work and send a clear message that unauthorized use of his intellectual property will not be tolerated.
Interestingly, around the time Longo announced his legal action against Binance, his own token, JUSTICE (For Pnut and Fred), saw a significant surge in value, increasing by over 200% according to DEX Screener. The token’s market cap currently stands at $361,000 with a liquidity of $108,000, indicating strong investor interest in Longo’s project.
In contrast, the PNUT token has experienced a decline in value, dropping by 6.5% in the past 24 hours of trading. Despite this, PNUT still maintains a market cap of over $1 billion, highlighting the popularity of meme coins in the cryptocurrency market.
Longo’s legal team has emphasized his exclusive rights under U.S. copyright laws over the image and name featured on the PNUT token, which depicts Peanut wearing a cowboy hat. The team has submitted an application for registration of the copyrighted IP to the United States Copyright Office, further strengthening Longo’s case against Binance.
This is not the first time Longo has faced copyright infringement issues related to PNUT. In November, he accused the PNUT community of exploiting his pet’s story without his involvement and launched his own token as a way to assert control over his narrative.
It remains to be seen how Binance will respond to Longo’s legal action and whether other exchanges, such as Coinbase, will reconsider listing the PNUT token in light of these developments. The case highlights the complexities of intellectual property rights in the cryptocurrency space and the importance of protecting creators’ work from unauthorized use.