A wave of memecoin scams is starting to target the Solana network and its users, raising millions through presales and then abandoning projects.
Blockchain investigator ZachXBT exposed 12 such projects that vanished after raising a combined $26.7 million.
"I Like This Coin" ($LIKE) and MOONKE are examples of these scams, raising millions before crashing over 90% within a day.
Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko is among those warning about the dangers of memecoin presales.
Investors are urged to do thorough research before investing in any memecoin presale on Solana.
Something similar to the Ethereum ICOs in 2017, is happening on the Solana network.
The memecoin market has boomed over the last two years and now boasts a market cap of more than $60 billion at the time of writing.
There is a problem with this, however.
Most of these memecoins are being deployed on the Solana network—which isn’t a bad thing in itself—only that most of these memecoins are turning out to be massive scams, as we will soon see.
An analyst/ blockchain sleuth just drew attention to the recent wave of L2 presale memecoins that get announced, raised millions of dollars, and then get abandoned—just like that.
This might be the best time to be aware of the ongoing memecoin mania going on on the Solana network, and how it has been raising eyebrows within the crypto community.
In a recent deep dive into the Solana memecoin ecosystem, blockchain sleuth, ZachXBT drew attention to 12 massive Solana-based memecoin projects whose admins managed to raise a staggering $26.7 million through presales—only to vanish and leave investors with wallets full of worthless tokens.
$26.7 million abandoned
Token presales themselves aren’t inherently bad. However, it is important to understand that this method of launching a crypto-based product has been the subject of heated debates due to how risky it is for investors, particularly inexperienced ones.
Some of the biggest abandoned projects in the Solana memecoin projects include “I like this coin” (with the ticker symbol $LIKE) and MOONKE.
The founder of $LIKE, with username @pokeee.eth, was able to raise a staggering 52,220 SOL (equal to $7.7 million at the time).
The LIKE memecoin launched with a market cap worth a staggering $577 million, to the delight of its investors.
However, less than 12 hours after launch, the $LIKE token crashed by more than 90%.
Even worse, the memecoin currently sits with a decline of around 99.2%, and graveyard silence on all its social media platforms.
MOONKE’s fate was almost identical.
As if by the same playbook, MOONKE, launched by another pseudonymous founder (@RockyXBT) started at a market cap of around $500 million (just $77 million less than $LIKE).
However, similar to $LIKE, MOONKE crashed by more than 99%, less than a day after launch.
There have also been reports of other projects like @condomonsol, which raised 4000 SOL ($560k), and never even launched.
Another is that of “Fake Jared,” an X account impersonating the former Subway spokesperson and convicted sex offender Jared Fogle.
“Fake Jared” managed to raise 5,000 SOL, before meeting the same fate as the others
There have been several warnings from industry leaders, about the ongoing memecoin frenzy on Solana, with some of the most well-known being from Solana's co-founder, Anatoly Yakovenko.
Preselling memecoins
The main idea with memecoins is that they have no intrinsic value.
This means that they rely on hype for their value, and therefore do not make any sense when launched via presale.
So far, we are seeing a cool off on memecoins, with some of the significant Solana-based memecoins like WIF losing most of their momentum over the last month.
Keep in mind that the Slerf incident that led to the “accidental burn” of a staggering 535,000 SOL (around $10 million) a few weeks ago, was also from a Solana-based memecoin.
Despite this “accident” (which seems unbelievable), SLERF gained a cult following and surged to a market cap of approximately $750 million.
Overall, investors are advised to do proper research before investing in any memecoin presales and to watch and learn before the market fully kicks off.
Disclaimer: Voice of Crypto aims to deliver accurate and up-to-date information, but it will not be responsible for any missing facts or inaccurate information. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile financial assets, so research and make your own financial decisions.