Jelly-My-Jelly (JELLYJELLY) is the latest meme coin that’s creating a buzz in the crypto community today. The JELLYJELLY token was launched by Venmo co-founder Sam Lessin via Pump.fun.
The meme coin is currently listed on centralized exchanges like Gate.io, Bitget, MEXC, and KuCoin.
Who is Sam Lessin and why did he create JELLYJELLY?
Sam Lessin is a popular technology entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He co-founded Drop.io, a file-sharing platform that was acquired by Facebook in 2010. Following the acquisition, he served as Facebook’s Vice President of Product Management from 2010 to 2014, overseeing key areas such as user identity and product development.
After his tenure at Facebook, Lessin co-founded Fin.com, where he currently serves as co-CEO. He is also a General Partner at Slow Ventures, a venture capital firm that has invested in companies like Venmo and MasterClass.
So, why did Lessin launch Jelly-My-Jelly? There’s no stated reason. Perhaps, Lessin just wanted to get in on the massive meme coin hype that was created by President Trump last week. According to Lessin’s social media, he thinks ‘Jelly is better than Jam’ – and that could very well be why he launched the meme coin.
jelly > jam
— sam lessin ?‍☠️ (@lessin) January 29, 2025
JELLYJELLY and Hyperliquid story
On 26 March 2025, Jelly-My-Jelly (JELLYJELLY) dramatically surged between 470% and 500% within a matter of hours, creating significant buzz across social platforms, particularly X (formerly Twitter). The surge resulted from an intense market event known as a ‘short squeeze’.
What exactly happened?
A trader made a bold and risky bet by shorting around 40% of JELLYJELLY’stotal supply. At the same time, they placed a leveraged long position, expecting to profit significantly if the coin’s price dropped. Instead, the strategy backfired spectacularly:
Initial short position: The trader borrowed and sold a massive amount of JELLYJELLY at a low price, betting the coin’s value would fall further.
Unexpected price surge: Contrary to expectations, the coin’s price skyrocketed. The rapid rise forced the trader’s short position into liquidation, meaning they had to buy back the borrowed coins at much higher prices.
Impact on Hyperliquid exchange
This liquidation left Hyperliquid Exchange’s Vault holding a $6.5m losing short position. Speculation arose that if JELLYJELLY’s price reached $0.15374, it could place approximately $230m at risk, increasing pressure on the Hyperliquid platform itself.
Amidst this turmoil:
JELLYJELLY’s market cap ballooned from around $10m to over $50m in less than an hour.
Trading volume surged dramatically, with hundreds of millions of tokens changing hands rapidly.
NEW ?
Massive drama going down on Hyperliquid involving $JELLY ?
1.A trader opened a massive $6M short position on JellyJelly (a small coin, ~$20M mcap at the time).
2.This trader deliberately self-liquidated by pumping JellyJelly’s price on-chain. Essentially forcing… pic.twitter.com/AI01q7KnZR
— Abhi (@0xAbhiP) March 26, 2025
Why did this become such a big story?
This event caught widespread attention due to several factors:
Market drama: High-stakes market manipulation, massive short squeezes, and meme coins rapidly climbing in value always draw significant attention from crypto enthusiasts.
High-profile backing: Since its launch in January, JELLYJELLY had already generated excitement, tied to a podcasting app and supported by notable industry figures, including Venmo’s co-founder and prominent Solana influencers.
Social media buzz: The dramatic market reversal and rapid price appreciation quickly spread on X, amplifying the excitement and drawing even more traders and spectators into the frenzy.
After evidence of suspicious market activity, the validator set convened and voted to delist JELLY perps.
All users apart from flagged addresses will be made whole from the Hyper Foundation. This will be done automatically in the coming days based on onchain data. There is no…
— Hyperliquid (@HyperliquidX) March 26, 2025
What exactly is short selling?
To clearly understand this scenario, here’s how shorting works:
Borrowing tokens: A trader borrows tokens (in this case, JELLYJELLY) they don’t own from an exchange.
Immediate sale: They immediately sell these borrowed tokens at the current market price.
Expecting a price drop: The trader hopes the price drops so they can buy the tokens back at a lower price.
Buying back cheaper: Once the price falls, the trader repurchases the tokens at this lower cost.
Returning borrowed tokens: The trader returns the tokens to the exchange, pocketing the difference as profit.
In the JELLYJELLY scenario, instead of dropping, the price soared, causing massive losses for the trader and triggering liquidation. Hyperliquid’s Vault absorbed these losses, fueling the buying frenzy even more.
