Canon, 2016–2026
The Lore of Harambe
Harambe became internet canon. In 2024 a Solana token put that canon on-chain. HarambeDAO is a later, independent attempt to govern around the same mint — not the original launch team, not Guerilla Labs.
Act I · 2016
The death and the meme
One afternoon at the Cincinnati Zoo became a global argument, then a joke that never quite ended.
May 28, 2016
Cincinnati
Harambe, a 17-year-old Western lowland silverback, was shot and killed at the Cincinnati Zoo after a 3-year-old boy entered his enclosure. The zoo said the shot was to save the child. The internet did not treat it as a closed case.
May 29, 2016
The petition and the feed
A Change.org petition titled “Justice for Harambe” gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures within two days. Reddit put the story on the front page. #JusticeForHarambe and #RIPHarambe moved across Facebook and Twitter.
Summer 2016
Absurdist mourning
“Dicks out for Harambe” became the internet’s way of grieving in public: half tribute, half dare. The gorilla turned into a shared punchline and a shared wound. That double register is still the culture this token sits on.
Act II · 2024
The coin
Years later, someone put the meme on Solana. Copycats exist. The mint is the only name that matters.
Late January 2024
SPL launch
Harambe on Solana launched as an SPL token. Aggregators disagree on the exact calendar day (Jan 15 vs Jan 24). The Guerilla Labs whitepaper, dated Jan 26, 2024, says the token launched on Jan 24. Treat the mint as canonical, not the headline date.
Date not independently confirmed on-chain in this pass.
Jan 2024
Fair-launch story
The whitepaper describes 1 billion tokens, 0% buy/sell tax, zero team allocation, and 100% of supply into a Raydium pool seeded with 20 SOL, then burned. Third-party scanners still report mint disabled and LP burned or locked. Those are reported on-chain traits, not a promise from this DAO.
Always
Verify the mint
Many tokens reuse the Harambe name. This project uses only Fch1oixTPri8zxBnmdCEADoJW2toyFHxqDZacQkwdvSP. If a site, bot, or chart shows a different address, it is not this coin.
Act III · 2025–2026
This DAO
HarambeDAO is a membership layer around that mint. It does not claim the 2024 launch, the original community accounts, or a funded treasury.
2025
An independent chapter
This site and Realm exist as a later project: a place to publish canon and, after an explicit opening gate, let deposited holders vote on community-mint proposals. The native treasury already exists and remains intentionally near-empty. $HARAMBE is the membership key. Holding it does not make Guerilla Labs or the original coin site “us.”
2026
Bootstrap mode
The domain, Realm metadata, one-seat council, and six council proposals are live. Community voting and a funded treasury are not open. The honest work now is to keep the canon sourced, publish the current state, and announce Gate A before asking holders to deposit or vote.
Sources
- Guerilla Labs whitepaper
Published Jan 26, 2024. Launch narrative, mint, and tokenomics. Not affiliated with this DAO.
- Token mint on Solscan
On-chain record for Fch1oixTPri8zxBnmdCEADoJW2toyFHxqDZacQkwdvSP.
- Raydium HARAMBE/SOL pool
Pool 2BJKy9pnzTDvMPdHJhv8qbWejKiLzebD7i2taTyJxAze.
- Harambe on Solana site
Public face of the coin community. Not this DAO.
- HarambeDAO on Realms
Governance address for this independent membership project.