What is Hoichi (HOICHI) crypto coin? The truth behind the Japanese folklore meme token

What is Hoichi (HOICHI) crypto coin? The truth behind the Japanese folklore meme token
Carolyn Lowe 19 December 2025 1 Comments

Hoichi (HOICHI) isn’t a crypto project you invest in. It’s a ghost story wrapped in blockchain code - one that never got off the ground, but still shows up on price charts like a flickering candle in an empty room.

What Hoichi (HOICHI) actually is

Hoichi is an ERC-20 token built on Ethereum, named after Hoichi the Earless, a blind biwa player from a famous Japanese ghost tale. The story, written by Lafcadio Hearn in 1904, tells of a musician who could summon spirits with his music - and was nearly taken by them. The token’s creators used that myth as branding, hoping to ride the wave of meme coins like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu. But unlike those, Hoichi never built a community, never released a roadmap, and never even gave people access to the coins.

The total supply? A massive 369,369,369,369 tokens. That number isn’t random. In Japanese culture, 369 is considered lucky - it sounds like "san-roku-ku," which can be interpreted as "good fortune." But here’s the catch: according to CoinGecko, as of December 19, 2025, the circulating supply is zero. Not one HOICHI token is out in the wild. Not on wallets. Not on exchanges. Not in anyone’s hands.

How can a coin with zero supply have a price?

This is where things get weird.

Some exchanges, like CoinDesk, report a 24-hour trading volume of $70.94. Others, like CoinGecko, say it’s $0.00. TradingView shows price charts with tiny spikes - but those aren’t real trades. They’re artifacts from bots, fake volume, or broken data feeds. The token’s price hovers around $0.000001, but there’s no liquidity. No buy orders. No sell orders. No Uniswap pools. No DEX trading.

Here’s the reality: if no one owns the token, and no one can buy or sell it, then the price is meaningless. It’s like saying a house is worth $500,000 - but no one’s ever lived in it, no one’s ever seen it, and the deed is locked in a vault with no key.

Why you can’t buy Hoichi (HOICHI)

You might find HOICHI listed on Binance or Coinbase - but don’t be fooled. Coinbase’s developer docs from December 10, 2025, explicitly say: "HOICHI is not available for trading on Coinbase platforms due to insufficient market integrity." Binance lists it, but you won’t find it in their trade interface. It’s a ghost listing - a relic of when someone tried to list it and then abandoned the effort.

Even if you find a site claiming to sell HOICHI, you’re likely walking into a trap. There are no verified wallets holding the token. No official smart contract interactions beyond a single transfer of 10,000 tokens in August 2024 - the last known activity on Etherscan in over a year. No GitHub repo. No whitepaper. No Twitter account with more than 200 followers. No Discord server with more than 12 people.

One Telegram group, @hoichi_official, has 12 members. The last message? "Stay tuned for updates." Posted June 3, 2024. Nothing since.

An empty crypto exchange dashboard showing HOICHI with a ghost price and one lone transaction in etching style.

Is Hoichi a scam?

It’s not labeled a scam by regulators - because it’s not even active enough to be investigated. But it ticks every box for a honeypot.

Experts agree. Marcus Chen, Senior Meme Coin Analyst at CoinDesk, wrote in December 2025: "HOICHI exhibits all the red flags of a potential honeypot scam - zero circulating supply despite trading volume reports, inconsistent price data across exchanges, and no verifiable community presence." Dr. Elena Rodriguez from MIT’s Digital Currency Initiative called it a "deliberate market manipulation tactic." When a token reports trading volume but zero circulating supply, it usually means someone is faking data to lure in curious buyers - then disappears with the money.

There’s no audit. No security review from CertiK or OpenZeppelin. No team behind it. No roadmap. No utility. No use case. Not even a website that loads properly anymore.

How does Hoichi compare to other meme coins?

Compare Hoichi to Dogecoin or Shiba Inu.

DOGE has over 3.8 million holders. SHIB has a market cap of $12.3 billion. Both have active communities, real trading volume, and even merchant adoption. Hoichi? It’s ranked #12,847 on CoinGecko. That’s lower than 99.9% of all cryptocurrencies. It’s not even in the bottom 1% of meme coins - it’s in the forgotten basement.

Even among failed meme coins, Hoichi stands out. Messari’s "Meme Coin Graveyard Report" (November 2025) says 78.3% of meme coins launched in 2023 are now dead. Hoichi isn’t just dead - it’s been buried twice. First by lack of interest. Then by its own data contradictions.

Why did Hoichi even get created?

It’s hard to say. Maybe someone thought Japanese folklore was a fresh angle in a market saturated with dog coins and pepe memes. Maybe they wanted to exploit cultural curiosity. Maybe it was a joke that got out of hand.

But Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) warned in April 2023 about "unauthorized commercial use of Japanese cultural heritage in digital assets." Hoichi’s name and imagery could technically violate that warning. No one’s been fined - because no one’s made money from it.

A forgotten tombstone for HOICHI in a digital graveyard, with fading messages and shadowy rival tokens in etching style.

What’s the future of Hoichi?

There isn’t one.

Delphi Digital’s "Meme Coin Sustainability Index" gave Hoichi a "Terminal Decline" status with a 99.8% chance of vanishing from the market within six months. J.P. Morgan’s crypto team said tokens like this have "near-zero survival probability beyond 18 months from launch." The only thing keeping Hoichi alive is data errors. Price trackers still show numbers because they’re pulling from fake volume. Exchange listings still exist because no one bothered to remove them.

As of December 2025, the last known blockchain activity was a single transfer of 10,000 HOICHI - over a year ago. No new contracts. No new wallets. No new interest.

Should you buy Hoichi (HOICHI)?

No.

Not because it’s illegal. Not because it’s been shut down. But because it doesn’t exist as a functioning asset. You can’t buy it. You can’t sell it. You can’t store it. You can’t use it. And if you somehow get it, you’ll have no way to trade it.

Reddit’s r/CryptoCurrency has zero threads about Hoichi in the past year. The only mention was a warning post on r/SatoshiStreetBets with 142 upvotes: "HOICHI is a scam token - don’t fall for the Japanese folklore gimmick." This isn’t a hidden gem. It’s a tombstone with a price tag.

What can you learn from Hoichi?

Hoichi is a lesson in how not to build a crypto project.

It shows that a cool name and a mythic story aren’t enough. Without community, without liquidity, without transparency - even the most creative idea dies in silence.

It also shows how easily data can be manipulated. Price charts can lie. Trading volume can be faked. Listings can be ghosted. And when you’re dealing with a token that has zero circulating supply, you’re not investing - you’re gambling on a glitch.

If you’re looking for meme coins, stick to ones with real users, real volume, and real teams. Hoichi? It’s a footnote in crypto history - a ghost story that never got to be told.

Is Hoichi (HOICHI) a real cryptocurrency?

Technically, yes - it’s an ERC-20 token on Ethereum with a fixed supply. But it has zero circulating supply, zero liquidity, zero community, and no utility. It exists only as a data entry on some exchanges, not as a functioning asset.

Can I buy Hoichi (HOICHI) on Binance or Coinbase?

You might see it listed, but you cannot buy or trade it. Coinbase explicitly states HOICHI is not available for trading due to insufficient market integrity. Binance lists it, but it doesn’t appear in the trading interface. No legitimate exchange lets you trade it.

Why does Hoichi have a price if no one owns it?

The price is based on fake or outdated data. Some platforms calculate prices using zero-volume trades, which creates mathematically invalid results. Real trading activity doesn’t exist, so the price is meaningless - it’s a ghost in the system.

Is Hoichi a scam or a failed project?

It’s not officially labeled a scam, but it shows all the signs: zero circulating supply, no team, no documentation, fake volume, and no community. Experts call it a honeypot - designed to lure in curious investors with misleading data, then vanish.

What happened to the Hoichi team?

There is no known team. No GitHub, no Twitter, no LinkedIn profiles. The last website update was in 2023. The only Telegram group has 12 members and hasn’t posted since June 2024. The project is completely abandoned.

Can I mine or stake Hoichi (HOICHI)?

No. Hoichi is an ERC-20 token with no staking, mining, or yield features. It’s a simple transfer token with no smart contract logic beyond basic functions. Even if you had it, you couldn’t earn anything from it.

Why does Hoichi have 369,369,369,369 tokens?

The number 369 is considered lucky in Japanese culture, sounding like "good fortune." It’s likely chosen for symbolic appeal, not technical reasons. But since no tokens are in circulation, the total supply is irrelevant - it’s just a number on a blockchain.

Is Hoichi banned in Japan?

It’s not banned, but Japan’s Financial Services Agency warned in 2023 against using cultural icons like Hoichi the Earless in crypto projects without proper licensing. Hoichi likely violates that warning - but since no one’s trading it, no action has been taken.

What’s the current price of Hoichi (HOICHI)?

Different sources show different prices - from $0.000001 to $0.000006. But none reflect real trades. The price is calculated from zero volume, making it unreliable. If you can’t buy or sell it, the price doesn’t matter.

Should I invest in Hoichi (HOICHI) for the long term?

Absolutely not. Hoichi has no future. No team, no users, no liquidity, no utility. Even the most speculative meme coins have a fighting chance. Hoichi is already dead. Investing in it is like buying a house that was never built.

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What is Hoichi (HOICHI) crypto coin? The truth behind the Japanese folklore meme token

Hoichi (HOICHI) is a Japanese folklore-themed Ethereum meme coin with zero circulating supply and no trading liquidity. Despite ghost listings and fake price data, it's effectively abandoned - a cautionary tale in crypto.

Comments (1)

  • Image placeholder
    chris yusunas December 19, 2025 AT 08:12
    Hoichi is the crypto equivalent of a haunted house with no doors. You can see the flickering lights from the road, hear the whispers, but good luck getting inside. And yet people still take photos like it’s a tourist spot. 🌫️

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