The archive · Consumer Apps · Product decision · 2023-2026
Giggles: a Minecraft YouTuber's fake-app meme raised $1,234,567 to trade memes
A 2023 TikTok joke about a fake Google app became Giggles, a meme-trading beta with 450,000 signups and a $1,234,567 pre-seed.
Giggles
What the business is
A TikTok-style short-video app where users post 'brainrot' clips and invest aura points (soon real crypto) in videos, earning payouts if content goes viral.
Starting capital：$1,234,567 pre-seed (announced April 2026) led by 1k(x), with Virtuals Protocol, Social Graph Ventures, Noar Ventures and Night Capital plus angels from OpenAI and Bain Capital, per BlockBeats/ChainCatcher.
How it started
In 2023, amid rumors TikTok would be banned, 19-year-old Minecraft YouTuber Justin Jin turned a running joke ('bro got banned from google giggles') into a meme about a fake app. He built a landing page styled like a real Google app with a waitlist signup; it drew 100,000 visits in one day, so he asked his friend Edwin Wang to build the actual app.
What happened
Giggles grew to eight employees aged 19-38 and entered an invite-only beta. In April 2026 TechCrunch reported the $1,234,567 pre-seed and verified the round with 1k(x) after the reporter grew suspicious of the company's earlier marketing; the round also included Virtuals Protocol, Social Graph Ventures, Noar Ventures and Night Capital.
No ending yet — it is still running.
Background
Giggles is a TikTok-style short-video app whose core mechanism is that all content is tradable: users post 'brainrot' clips and invest aura points in videos they think will go viral, with payouts promised if the meme takes off. The company plans to switch the points to real cryptocurrency, turning the feed into a prediction market where early bets on memes pay off.
The company was born from a joke. In 2023, amid TikTok ban rumors, 19-year-old Minecraft YouTuber Justin Jin started a meme about a fake app called Giggles, named after the phrase 'bro got banned from google giggles.' He built a landing page and logo that imitated a real Google app, complete with a waitlist signup; the site drew 100,000 visits in one day, so Jin recruited his friend Edwin Wang to build the real product.
By April 2026 Giggles was an invite-only beta with about 450,000 users signed up and eight employees aged 19 to 38. TechCrunch reported a pre-seed round of exactly $1,234,567 led by crypto fund 1k(x), with Virtuals Protocol, Social Graph Ventures, Noar Ventures and Night Capital participating; the reporter verified the deal with 1k(x) after the company's earlier ventures raised suspicions.
The bet is that a well-made doomscroll feed can be the first crypto app where people spend more than 30 minutes a day, and that trading on virality organizes information better than likes. Skeptics point to memecoin dynamics: bets on worthless tokens can be zero-sum and prone to scams, and bots could flood the feed. Jin acknowledges the risk but argues that prediction-style trading can make content discovery more honest.
What has to be true
- The fake-app meme was real demand discovery: 100,000 visits in a day and 450,000 beta signups proved users wanted the joke product before any real funding.
- Jin picked a wedge incumbents would not copy: putting a trading terminal inside a TikTok feed, aimed at a generation already fluent in memecoins.
- The exact $1,234,567 figure and the reporter's public skepticism show the credibility burden: a meme-born brand must be re-verified to be taken seriously.
- The 30-minute daily-engagement goal targets the retention metric social apps live or die by, not just the virality of the launch.
What can be applied
A viral meme can be the cheapest customer acquisition ever, but a joke turned company doubles the burden: the founder must be believed by users, then re-verified by investors and press.
Aftermath
As of April 2026 Giggles remains an invite-only beta with roughly 450,000 users on the waitlist and an eight-person team spanning ages 19-38. The app currently runs on 'aura points'; the roadmap moves users to real cryptocurrency trading on memes, with prediction-market payouts when content goes viral. Jin says the goal is to become the first crypto app where people spend more than 30 minutes a day, and he flags bots as the biggest threat to feed quality. No public launch date had been announced as of the TechCrunch report.
Sources
- A teenage Minecraft YouTuber raised $1,234,567 for a meme prediction market called Giggles. It broke me.
- The new meme issuance platform Giggles has completed a $1.2 million Pre-Seed funding round with participation from 1kx Capital
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