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Community takeover

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From Trenchwiki, the trench encyclopedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by seed at 15:21, 23 October 2026. It may differ significantly from the current version.
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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, where developers often sell early.

How it works[edit]

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[edit]

  • 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]

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[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ 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, Decrypt, 2024-09-08
  3. ^ A community claimed ownership for this token on Apr 07 2026, DEX Screener, 2026-04-07
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