Fortnite's 'Solana meme coin' controversy – Epic Games CEO calls it a scam, token still increases 2,700% before crashing
In a satirical twist that is true to the "degen" genre, a Solana meme coin inspired by Fortnite's new storyline has taken the crypto community by storm, increasing in price by 2,700% in just 90 minutes — only to plummet after Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney called it "a scam."
The story begins when Fortnite, the globally popular battle royale game, introduces a new game mode called "Lawless" in Chapter 6: Season 2, accompanied by a humorous villain: Big Dill — a rapper and crypto scam creator who is wanted for pulling the rug out from under a blockchain project. In the game, players can collect and spend a fictional currency called "Dill Bits" at "black market" locations in exchange for valuable items.
Surprisingly, however, a group of real-life degenerates turned the joke into reality by launching a meme coin on the Solana network, called… **Dill Bits (DB)**. With no connection to Epic Games or Fortnite, DB quickly attracted the community and skyrocketed from a market cap of $192,100 to over **$5.38 million**, thanks to a… scolding.
Specifically, when an X (formerly Twitter) user mentioned DB in a joke post about income from illegal activities, Tim Sweeney did not hesitate to reply: “Scam.” With just one word, the meme coin community understood this as a “signal from the universe”. They even mocked that Sweeney himself launched the token — something he quickly denied.
“Idiots, I didn’t make it. What’s wrong with you?” – Sweeney fired back, following up with a series of posts calling all the memecoins tagging him “scams.”
Despite Epic Games’ clear statement that Dill Bits are an in-game currency, with no plans for cryptocurrency integration, the DB meme coin continued to explode briefly before turning around. As of today, DB is down 82.3%, with a market cap of around $952,440 — and still going down.
An Epic Games spokesperson stressed to Decrypt:
“Dill Bits are a fictional currency in Fortnite Chapter 6 Season 2. No cryptocurrency is associated with Fortnite or endorsed by Epic.”
Ironically, Fortnite’s already satirical crypto lore has become the catalyst for a real token. This has further excited DB’s Telegram community, with claims that “Tim acknowledges us by calling DB a scam — perfect!”
However, given its longstanding stance against crypto, NFTs, and other forms of digital assets in games, Epic Games is unlikely to change its stance anytime soon. Tim Sweeney said in 2024:
“Cryptocurrency in Fortnite — no. But blockchain as a distributed data solution — maybe one day.”
He also expressed interest in technological aspects like consensus mechanisms and zero-knowledge proofs rather than the monetary element.
Meanwhile, degens continue to toy with the new “meta”: turning anything in popular culture into a memecoin, if only to… see how quickly it crashes.
Summary:
- Fortnite-inspired Solana meme coin “Dill Bits” surges 2,700% after Epic CEO calls it a “scam.”
- No official affiliation with Epic Games.
- Token peaked at $5.38 million in market cap, then fell to under $1 million.
- Tim Sweeney denied any involvement and maintained: "Crypto has no place in Fortnite."