Vatican Vibes: Meme Coin LUCE Pumps as Traders Speculate on Papal Succession

LUCE—an irreverent Catholic-themed meme coin—is rallying as crypto degens place bets on the next Pope. The token, unaffiliated with the Vatican, surged 300% in a week amid whispers of an aging pontiff’s retirement. Critics call it sacrilegious; traders call it liquidity. One hedge fund manager quipped, ’Hail Mary trades outperform our quant models anyway.’

Conclave bets

In the Roman Catholic tradition, when a pope dies or resigns, cardinals gather to elect the successor through a secret ballot, known as a papal conclave.

As a result, betting markets have launched around the prospects of papal succession. On Myriad Markets, operated by Decrypt’s parent company Dastan, punters have placed Italy’s Cardinal Pietro Parolin in the lead with a 37% probability.

This is followed by the Philippines’ Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle at 27%, with more betting on unnamed others at 34%.

The conclave will be convened within the next three weeks to choose the next leader of the 1.4 billion-member Catholic Church.

Born in Argentina, Jorge Mario Bergoglio took the papal name Francis in 2013 when he was elected, becoming the first non-European pope in about 1,300 years.

The young Bergoglio worked as a bouncer at a nightclub in Buenos Aires. At age 36, he led Argentina’s Jesuit congregation. He died at 88 following a stroke and cardiovascular collapse.

Bergoglio had been a vocal critic of technological excesses during his papacy.

In late 2023, he described artificial intelligence as "the highest-stakes gamble of our future" and urged that it be developed to "serve humanity’s best potential."

Last year, Bergoglio denounced the use of AI in war, saying: "No machine should ever choose to take the life of a human being."

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair

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