The California Gold Rush of 1849 was the very first pump and dump memecoin.

In 1848, a rumor was circulating all around America that a man went on a voyage to California and became an instant millionaire after he stumbled across a land of gold. The rumor spread far and wide, causing people to feel like they are missing out on this quick way of riches. Hundreds of thousands of people immediately said "Screw it, I'm gonna get rich too!" and went on a long voyage to California with dreams of finding lots of gold and becoming overnight millionaires. Because cars and planes weren't a thing back then, the voyage was long and rough and many got sick and died along the way.

Upon arriving to California, the people began turning over every rock sifting the water for gold. Sadly, almost no one actually found any gold. As it turned out, the rumors of gold in California were greatly exaggerated. While there was some gold to be found initially, almost all of it was already found months before the herd of people made voyage to California. They were simply too late. More money was actually made selling shovels and equipment to people for gold mining, than money was earned actually finding gold.

So the early bird got the worm, while hundreds of thousands of suckers were left holding the shovel bag on a meme dream that never materialized.

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