$150M In ‘Presale’ Meme Coins Sent To Random Strangers’ Solana Addresses, Investigation Reveals

The meme coin mania on the Solana SOL/USD blockchain prompted people to send almost $150 million to strangers’ Solana addresses in search of the next 100X, pseudonymous cryptocurrency investigator ZachXBT revealed.

What Happened: ZachXBT’s investigation, shared on the social platform X, uncovered that since March 12, there have been more than 33 presale events on the Solana network, raising a total of $149.2 million in SOL.

However, this surge in interest has also brought with it a shadow of concern over possible fraudulent schemes and rug pulls.

Despite the potential for lucrative returns, Matt, a collab manager and founder of Make Money With Matt, warns that a significant number of these projects, often promoted by lesser-known accounts, may not be as legitimate as they appear.

“I imagine this pre-sale meta won’t last too much longer. We saw a similar thing happen with ETH last year. A few of them blew up, 1000 copycats spawned and the vast majority were either hard or soft rugs, and then people wisened up and moved on. I’m expecting the same to happen with Solana,” Matt said.

He also pointed out the challenges in tracking these presales, as organizers often delete their initial posts to prevent further contributions.

This lack of openness and the frequent occurrence of rug pulls, where developers abruptly withdraw funds and abandon the project, significantly increase the investment risk.

ZachXBT reported that Smolecoin had raised 169,982 SOL, equivalent to $31.31 million, based on the current price of Solana.

Dexter, the founder of another meme coin project on Solana, announced intentions to refund investors and carefully manage the remaining funds to reduce risks.

Dexter’s pledge to allocate funds responsibly and focus on project development offers a stark contrast to the prevailing doubts about the integrity of Solana’s meme coin ventures.

The Slerf meme coin on Monday experienced a significant financial blunder, resulting in over $10 million in losses for presale investors.

The mishap occurred when a developer admitted to accidentally destroying a large portion of the token supply, including those set aside for liquidity provision and airdrop distribution.

This error was disclosed after the project had successfully raised more than 50,000 SOL, valued at $10.8 million.

Despite attempts to rectify the situation, the irreversible burning of LP tokens and the entire 500 million SLERF token reserve for the airdrop left the project in a difficult position.

Why It Matters: Not everyone is on board with the latest “meme coin meta.” Solana’s co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko quoted Zach’s investigation with the words “stop doing this.”

Others wondered about how “insane” this is, while Ryan Watkins, co-founder of Syncracy Capital expects “degeneracy” to reach new heights six to 12 months from now when he expects the top of the bull cycle.

What’s Next: Meme coins took a breather in Tuesday trading, with all major coins taking heavy hits due to a market-wide price dip.

Read Next: Bitcoin Plunges Below $63,000, Triggers Market-Wide Crypto Selloff

Image created using artificial intelligence with Midjourney.