Chill Guy Memecoin Creator Plans Takedown Requests Over 'For-Profit Related Things'

Phillip Banks, the digital artist who created the character used for the memecoin, said he plans to issue takedown requests for “for-profit related things” over the coming days.

Phillip Banks, the digital artist who created the character used for the Chill Guy memecoin, said he plans to issue takedown requests for “for-profit related things” over the coming days.

But it’s not clear if Banks’ copyright applies to the image of the Chill Guy character, the name Chill Guy, or both.

In any case, pursuing legal action may be difficult.

In crypto, creating new tokens is permissionless. Anyone can do so without going through an approval process of revealing one’s identity.

The identity of the Chill Guy memecoin creator, who only goes by the pseudonym “mrowl,” is also unknown, meaning Banks will have to find out who made the token to get any potential takedown request to stick.

Failing that, Banks could still petition known entities, such as decentralised crypto exchanges, to avoid the token, cripppling traders’ ability to buy and sell it.

In 2021, decentralised exchange Uniswap restricted access through its website to a small number of tokens that potentially violated US securities laws, although those tokens could still be traded by interacting with the Ethereum blockchain directly.

Later that year, Pepe the Frog creator Matt Furie succeeded in getting NFT marketplace OpenSea to take down the project Sad Frogs District, which Furie claimed rips off the Pepe character.

Takedown requests may also discourage centralised exchanges like Coinbase or Binance from listing Chill Guy. Popular memecoin Pnut surged in value after top crypto exchange Binance listed it for trading.

Banks did not immediately respond to a request for comment.