Mira Chen Mira Chen
Siqi Chen shared the story of his daughter, Mira, who was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor, mobilizing some crypto communities to help in fundraising efforts toward brain tumor research. GoFundMe Fundraiser by Siqi Chen / Screenshot

KEY POINTS

  • Tech CEO Siqi Chen asked for help toward brain tumor research after his daughter, Mira, was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor
  • Waddles created the $MIRA token and donated 50% of the token supply to Chen for the cause
  • Other prominent crypto leaders also joined in the donation drive, uniting the Solana and ai16Z communities
  • Chen has since donated $1 million from his liquidated $MIRA tokens to a lab that focuses on rare brain tumor research

Christmas is a time of giving, and over the last few days, the Solana community united to help fund cancer research through the token MIRA, a cryptocurrency token created on Pump.fun by a newbie in the token-creation segment.

As of late Sunday, MIRA's price has plunged, but buyers continue to stack up, and the coin's market cap is currently at $17 million as per GeckoTerminal data. Also, trading volume over the last day was at $8 million.

Father's Plea Touches Crypto Community's Heart

The story of the MIRA token all started after tech executive Siqi Chen took to X earlier last week following his daughter's brain tumor diagnosis. His daughter, Mira, was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor called a craniopharyngioma that's located at an "extremely dangerous area of the brain and associated with the worst quality of life outcomes out of all survivable brain tumors."

There is no cure for Mira's brain tumor, but Chen hopes that the world can come together to help fund Dr. Todd Hankinson's research on finding a cure.

Chen has set up a GoFundMe page towards the cause with a $300,000 goal. As of late Sunday, Chen has raised over $250,000.

Waddles, a beginner in the Pump.fun token generation segment, created the MIRA coin as news of Chen's heartbreaking plea for cancer research fundraising spread across the crypto community.

"When I saw the story about Mir and her illness, I thought it would be good to buy and send supply to you [Chen] with the hopes of getting the SOL community behind a good cause on Christmas," Waddles wrote on X.

He sent 50% of the MIRA token's total supply to Chen, getting encouraging words from the Solana community and giving Chen the shock of his life for all the good reasons.

Chen thanked Waddles and the SOL community for their support, but the token's price plunged soon after Chen announced he would liquidate his MIRA token supply so he could donate the funds to Dr. Hankinson's research lab.

Crypto Leaders Mobilize ai16Z Community

Little Mira's story didn't just touch Waddles and the SOL community's hearts; it also lit a fire in the hearts of two crypto leaders: Parzival and Shaw.

Parzival, director of Project 89, asked Chen to set up a Solana wallet and donated 100,000 in various crypto tokens. Parzival then told Shaw about the MIRA project, and the latter moved to donate 100,000 in "degen tokens."

Shaw went on to "spread the message to his swarm of builders and the ai16Z community to help push the project forward."

Chen Stays True to His Promise

Since receiving help from the crypto community, Chen has helped other people in the cancer research space, including Jason Curry, whose son, Jack, needed gene therapy, and also has a token after his name.

He has donated $1 million (from his liquidated MIRA tokens) to the Children's Hospital of Colorado, specifically for the Hankinson Lab, where Dr. Hankinson and his team are dedicating their research toward finding a cure for Mira's condition and other rare tumors.

Mira's story is just one of other children who suffer from rare conditions. Her story is also proof that crypto can be used for the greater good.

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