Memecoin presale
Memecoin presale is a fundraising method in which buyers send cryptocurrency, typically SOL, to a creator's wallet before a token exists, on the promise of receiving a share of its supply at launch.[1] Buyers have no guarantee of receiving tokens, which makes presales a common vehicle for fraud.[1]
History[edit]
In January 2022 the Frosties NFT project raised about $1.1 million in a pre-sale; US prosecutors charged its creators in March 2022 after they took the funds and shut the project's website.[2]
Solana memecoin presales peaked in March 2024. Cointelegraph reported over $100 million raised in about three days around 18 March, citing researcher 0xGumshoe.[1] ZachXBT counted 33 presales from 12 to 20 March raising about 796,000 SOL (about $139 million at the time), with about 25,400 SOL ($4.4 million) lost to scams he identified.[3]
Book of Meme (BOME), launched on 14 March 2024 by the artist Darkfarms, rose more than 36,000% to a $1.45 billion peak market cap in under 56 hours.[1] ForkLog, citing ZachXBT, reported that its presale received 169,982 SOL.[3] On 18 March the developer of Slerf accidentally burned the LP tokens and the tokens reserved for presale buyers, losing about $10 million raised; the token's price rose regardless.[4]
Criticism[edit]
ZachXBT documented a presale host who kept 62% of 7,000 SOL raised, an impersonator of the blogger Jared MEV who took 2,100 SOL, and a 13,000-SOL theft by an account named Vombatus_eth.[3] Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko replied "Stop doing this" to the posts.[3] Ethereum educator Anthony Sassano called sending money to a presale with a high chance of a Rug pull "dumb as hell".[1] Launchpads using a Bonding curve, such as pump.fun, sell supply directly from a contract without a creator-held fund.[5]
Timeline[edit]
- 2022-03-24: US prosecutors charge the Frosties creators over a pre-sale[2]
- 2024-03-12: start of the Solana presale wave tallied by ZachXBT[3]
- 2024-03-14: Book of Meme launches[1]
- 2024-03-18: Slerf developer burns presale funds[4]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Memecoin presales hit 'peak degeneracy' with over $100M raised in 3 days, Cointelegraph, 2024-03-18
- ^ DOJ unveils charges amid investigation into Frosties NFT 'rug pull', The Block, 2022-03-24
- ^ Solana Presales Raise $140 Million Across 33 Campaigns, ForkLog, 2024-03-20
- ^ Solana memecoin Slerf accidentally burns $10 million worth of funds raised from presale investors, The Block, 2024-03-18
- ^ Pump program README, pump.fun (GitHub), n.d.