LUCE Meme Coin Soars 134% After Pope Francis’ Passing
The untimely demise of Pope Francis has rocked not only the religious community but also the crypto space, especially the meme coin community. One such coin specifically—LUCE, a Solana token based on the Vatican’s official mascot for the Holy Year 2025—experienced a meteoric 134% jump following the Pope’s death. The token hit an all-time high of $0.02517 before retracing to about $0.015 at the time of writing.
Even though the coin had no official connection to the Vatican or the Pope, the coin became viral due to religious symbolism of the coin combined with meme popularity. Initially released at the end of October 2024 on pump.fun, a meme coin website, LUCE began to gain popularity soon after the Vatican had released its Jubilee mascot, also named LUCE.
According to meme coin tracker GMGN.Ai, LUCE first broke through the roof immediately after launch, reaching a market cap of more than $80 million within two days. The coin has experience intense volatility since then. Presently, LUCE still retains a market cap of around $15 million, with around $1.8 million liquidity and more than 44,750 unique holders.
Trading volume remains strong on a daily basis at approximately $40.7 million. Despite the trend, GMGN.Ai has indicated LUCE with a 100% rug pull probability, echoing the overall danger of temporary meme coins born from viral moments.
Pope Francis’ Death Gives Rise to Meme Coin Frenzy
Pope Francis’s passing on April 21 from double pneumonia, as confirmed by Vatican officials and reported by Reuters, triggered the latest LUCE rally. The Pope had made a public appearance only the day before—his first in more than a month-long 38-day hospitalization for pneumonia. During that short public appearance, he delivered his Easter Sunday blessing, which would be his last.
The death was quickly spilling over into crypto markets, where investors were scrambling to capitalize on the publicity. LUCE was experiencing a new spike, and it did not stop there.
New Papal-Themed Tokens Emerge
Hours after the Vatican approval, a series of new Solana-based meme coins bearing Pope Francis’s name began appearing on GMGN.Ai. One token called Francis rose over 115% in its first hour. Other tokens such as POPE, RIP POPE, and RIP (the latter featuring pictures of the deceased pontiff) flooded the market in traditional meme coin fashion.
Those coins, though frequently made as a prank or for quick money, are symptomatic of a larger phenomenon of crypto responding immediately to what’s happening in the world—particularly the death of international icons.
Market Maturity Amid Spurts
As with prior meme coin trends, dangers are cautioned by specialists. Sudden increases in value are most commonly preceded and followed by equally sudden falls, and few of the tokens in the group have significant liquidity and open ownership upon release. Even so well-liked a token as LUCE now has a rug pull warning, cautioning users to be wary.
With papal-themed tokens dominating Solana’s meme coin charts, the moment shows how quickly crypto can shift in response to world or cultural news—often for better, or for worse.
