Pink Wojak with noose around neck holding revolver to head, crying blood and gritting teeth

Pink Wojak

2017reaction imageclassic

Published September 22, 2026

Pink Wojak, also known as /biz/ Wojak, is a pink-tinted variation of the Wojak character, usually shown with bleeding eyes or a screaming mouth, that took hold on 4chan's /biz/ board in mid-20172. Anonymous posters used it to caption their own crypto losses, and it grew into shorthand for wrecked investors through the 2017 crypto bull run.

wojak crypto memes 4chan memes finance memes reaction memes

Overview

The Wojak character predates Pink Wojak by years, circulating as a bald, mournful MS Paint bust across 4chan and Polish imageboards before spawning color-coded variants3. Pink Wojak sits on the losing-trader branch of that family: pink-tinted, heavily distorted, with common variants including warped screaming faces, red streaks under the eyes, and packs of clones riding rollercoasters next to Bitcoin price charts2.

Tone sits between self-pity and gallows humor. On /biz/, threads pair the image with margin calls, missed exits, and altcoin rugs, letting the face do the emotional work while the text lists the damage2. The character is a stand-in for the poster rather than a mascot, so the same edits get reused with different captions across countless threads.

Origin & Background

Platform
4chan /biz/
Date
2017

The earliest documented Pink Wojak post appeared on June 15, 2017, when an anonymous user submitted a /biz/ thread about a crash in the price of ether, paired with a warped Pink Wojak screaming2. The base Wojak had already circulated anonymously across 4chan and other imageboards for years, and the pink recolor was one of many derivatives that stuck1. Because /biz/ posts are anonymous and largely unarchived by 4chan itself, the artist behind the first Pink Wojak edit is not confirmed, and the format is best treated as a product of the board rather than any single author.

How It Spread

On June 22, 2017, a /biz/ thread ran a manically laughing Pink Wojak captioned about not going all-in on an altcoin called ANTS2. The next day, June 23, users posted a meta-thread complaining that moderators had deleted an earlier Pink Wojak thread, itself evidence of how fast the character had saturated the board3.

The image moved beyond /biz/ that summer. On August 27, 2017, a Pink Wojak appeared on /x/, the paranormal board, with the character pointing a gun at his head while hanging himself, pulling the format into a darker, non-finance context2. By November 21, 2017, near the peak of the Bitcoin bull run, a /biz/ thread posted a Pink Wojak collage of the character riding a rollercoaster next to Bitcoin fluctuation graphs, fusing the meme to that cycle's chart-watching anxiety2.

Timeline

2017-06-15

Earliest documented Pink Wojak post: a /biz/ thread about an ether price crash paired with a warped, screaming Pink Wojak.

2017-06-22

/biz/ thread with a manically laughing Pink Wojak captioned about not going all-in on an altcoin called ANTS.

2017-06-23

/biz/ meta-thread complaining that moderators had deleted a prior Pink Wojak thread, signaling how heavily the format had saturated the board.

2017-08-27

Pink Wojak spreads to /x/ with an edit of the character pointing a gun to his head while hanging himself.

2017-11-21

Rollercoaster collage variant surfaces on /biz/ near the peak of the Bitcoin bull run, with Pink Wojaks stacked next to price fluctuation graphs.

Frequently Asked Questions