Editing Community takeover

**Community takeover** (**CTO**) is the adoption of a memecoin by its holders after the original developer abandons or dumps it, with volunteers running new social accounts, a website and listings.[^1][^2] The practice is common in the [[Trenches|trenches]], where developers often sell early.

## How it works
A CTO group creates new Telegram, X and website channels and asks [[DEX Screener]] to replace the token's listed links.[^1] DEX Screener token pages then show a notice that "a community claimed ownership for this token", with the date.[^3] Decrypt reported that DEX Screener's update process had also been abused, with attackers changing Billy's banner, and that DEX Screener had not found a way to stop it.[^1]

## Examples
- Billy: launched on [[pump.fun]] in early June 2024. Its developer sold all tokens within 20 minutes, mostly in one $1,116 sale, then threatened to delete the project's socials. Holders set up new channels within hours; up to 100 people took on roles such as marketing, and the token peaked at a $215 million market cap.[^1]
- [[Gigachad]]: named by Decrypt as another token taken over by early investors after its developer left.[^2]

## Legal issues
Lawyers told Decrypt in September 2024 that CTO teams face risks of misleading marketing, deceptive trade practices and false claims of backing; Andrew Rossow noted that an original creator may hold name and likeness rights to a coin's imagery. Attorney Jacob Martin expected meme tokens to face less enforcement.[^2] A takeover does not shield an original developer whose conduct amounted to a [[Rug pull]], according to Bitget's Hon Ng.[^2]

## See also
- [[Billy]]
- [[Glossary of trenching terms]]
- [[List of memecoin traders]]
- [[Liquidity pool]]
- [[Mint authority]]
- [[Sniping]]
- [[Bundling]]
- [[Copy trading]]

## References
1. [How Solana Meme Coin Billy Survived Being Abandoned by Its Dev](https://decrypt.co/241846/how-solana-meme-coin-billy-survived-being-abandoned-by-its-dev), Decrypt, 2024-07-29
2. [Meme Coin Takeover Teams Face Legal Entanglement, Experts Say](https://decrypt.co/247781/meme-coin-takeover-teams-face-legal-entanglement-experts-say), Decrypt, 2024-09-08
3. [A community claimed ownership for this token on Apr 07 2026](https://dexscreener.com/solana/7bc22pphgecdhpxnvyjmxv51y1qzkaced8yxtzx8pump), DEX Screener, 2026-04-07