Editing 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
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
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
- 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
- [[cat in a dogs world]]
- [[Pump and dump]]
- [[Honeypot]]
- [[Wash trading]]
- [[Mint authority]]
- [[Bundling]]
- [[Sniping]]
- [[KOL]]

## References
1. [Memecoin presales hit 'peak degeneracy' with over $100M raised in 3 days](https://cointelegraph.com/news/solana-memecoin-presales-hit-peak-degeneracy-over-one-hundred-million), Cointelegraph, 2024-03-18
2. [DOJ unveils charges amid investigation into Frosties NFT 'rug pull'](https://www.theblock.co/post/139169/doj-unveils-charges-amid-investigation-into-frosties-nft-rug-pull), The Block, 2022-03-24
3. [Solana Presales Raise $140 Million Across 33 Campaigns](https://forklog.com/en/?p=11808), ForkLog, 2024-03-20
4. [Solana memecoin Slerf accidentally burns $10 million worth of funds raised from presale investors](https://www.theblock.co/post/283025/solana-memecoin-slerf-burn), The Block, 2024-03-18
5. [Pump program README](https://github.com/pump-fun/pump-public-docs/blob/main/docs/PUMP_PROGRAM_README.md), pump.fun (GitHub), n.d.