Mikel Merino’s 91st-minute winner against Portugal on July 6 didn’t just send Spain into the 2026 World Cup semifinals. It ended Cristiano Ronaldo’s World Cup career, broke the internet, and apparently inspired someone to launch a meme token.
The Arsenal midfielder, who joined the club in August 2024 on a four-year deal worth $27 million from Real Sociedad, has become Spain’s super-sub of the tournament. Ahead of the semifinal clash with France, Merino emphasized that Spain’s conviction and composure under pressure are what separate this squad from past iterations.
The token nobody asked for
Within hours of that quarterfinal goal, a Solana-based meme token labeled $MERINO appeared on decentralized exchanges. Its current market cap sits at roughly $2.4K. That’s not a typo. Two thousand four hundred dollars.
Trading volume has been negligible, and Merino himself has zero connection to the token. No endorsement, no partnership, no awareness of it whatsoever, in all likelihood.
