Catholic Church-Inspired Meme Coin Luce Blesses Traders With Righteous Gains

Luce (LUCE), a Solana meme coin inspired by the cartoon mascot of the upcoming Catholic Holy Year, jumped in price Tuesday after a futures listing on major exchange, Bybit. It continued a hot streak for the token, which was minted just three weeks ago.

The coin, which is up 13% over the past 24 hours at a current price above $0.23, is now available to trade with up to 12.5x leverage in Bybit’s “Innovation Zone”—a designated section for coins that are inherently more risky and volatile, and come with higher trading fees.

Luce, or “light” in Italian, was designated as the Catholic Church’s mascot for the upcoming Jubilee, a once-in-25-year Holy Year celebration in which Roman Catholics may be granted remission of sins under certain conditions. Designed to help the Catholic Church better resonate with a youthful audience and unveiled at an October 28 press conference, she boasts bright blue hair, a yellow raincoat, and an orange cross necklace.

It took only hours after the unveiling for Luce to move from the podium to Pump.fun, where the corresponding (and to be clear, unofficial) meme coin—LUCE—was created.

The coin almost immediately gained traction with crypto-natives, thanks in part due to its resemblance to Milady Maker, a popular NFT collection in crypto circles that has a cult-like following.

The token needed only two days to run from Pump.fun’s home page to a more than $80 million market cap, providing early traders with significant windfalls. For example, one top trader that bought more than 24 million LUCE tokens for 15 SOL in early trading has profited more than $425,000 at the time of writing, according to DEX Screener.

While Luce’s rapid rise and considerable trading volumes—more than $100 million worth in the last 24 hours—may have given rise to the Bybit perpetual contract listing, it could also earn Luce a spot listing on Bybit as well.

Shortly after the perpetual listing was announced, Bybit added that Luce would additionally be entered into its ByVotes campaign, an initiative that allows holders the chance to deposit the token to vote on its potential inclusion on Bybit’s Spot Adventure Zone listings.

From November 20-22, LUCE holders that deposit their tokens on Bybit will be eligible to vote in an attempt to push Luce past the listing threshold. If successful, those who vote will be eligible to split a pool of more than 1 million LUCE, a pot worth about $250,000 at current prices.

Just 22 days old, Luce currently has the ninth-largest market cap of any Solana token ever created on Pump.fun. Luce is up 47% over the last week—and 893% over 14 days.

Edited by Andrew Hayward