The gold PokéStops and strange coin Pokémon might have to do with Pokémon Go’s upcoming Team Rocket Takeover event

A few wild things are happening in Pokémon Go right now, namely with the arrival of gold PokéStops rewarding players with coins and a strange coin-based Pokémon following players around as they earn them. So far, we don’t have any precise or concrete answers from the development team at Niantic. Still, it looks like the datamining team at PokeMiners has a few theories formed by taking a look at the code, and it might have something to do with the upcoming Team Rocket Takeover event.

For those out of the loop, following the conclusion of the Dratini Community Day Classic event, a mysterious Pokémon with a coin on its back appeared behind players. Soon after, gold PokéStops began to appear, and when players spun them, they provided several more rewards and a mysterious coin, along with Professor Willow introducing a character, Jacq. Not much is known about these mysterious coins, but they’re believed to be an evolution item player will need to collect to evolve the follower Pokémon, and it’s a Pokémon that will likely appear in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, which releases on November 18.

Related: Following Pokémon Go’s Dratini’s Community Day Classic, a new Pokémon appears near players with hints towards Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

The PokeMiners team has been looking through the main code for these events and trying to connect to what they’ve done in previous breakdowns. We’ve seen much of their results, with the mysterious Pokémon appearing behind us being one we cannot catch and the coins being an upcoming evolution item. Their breakdown also shares that this also has to do with Team Rocket, but in what way, we don’t know. However, there will be a Team Rocket Takeover event from November 14 to 17, which ends when Pokémon Scarlet and Violet will release in Australia and slowly become available worldwide.

The team shared a full thread breaking this down on their Twitter feed. They share what they see in the code, how it lines up with current events, and what it could mean for future events. Much of this is pure speculation, but it is looking like we’re going to learn more about this mysterious Pokémon and these coins when Team Rocket makes their appearance on November 14 in Pokémon Go.