SNEAK PEEK
Vitalik Buterin’s sale of NEIRO triggered a 60% dip, then a 200% surge in the token’s value.
NEIRO’s unexpected spike highlights the volatility and speculative nature of memecoins.
The memecoin market overall has dropped 16% in 24 hours, impacting major tokens significantly.
The value of an undiscovered memecoin has skyrocketed following its abrupt sale by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin. On August 4, the Neiro on ETH (NEIRO) token attempted to gain traction by airdropping 4% of its supply to Buterin, positioning him as the largest holder of the token. However, within an hour, Buterin offloaded his entire allocation of NEIRO, exchanging 17.1 billion NEIRO for 44.5 Ether, worth approximately $103,000 at the time.
NEIRO price dumped by 60% in the period right after Buterin sold, which caused panic among the investors. However, contrary to what the community expected, the token had a strong movement in the opposite direction.
According to DexScreener data, NEIRO surged over 200%, reaching an all-time high of $0.000038 on August 5. This unexpected price action highlights the unpredictable nature of the cryptocurrency market, particularly with memecoins known for their volatility.
Following the sale, the team behind the Neiro on Ethereum account humorously addressed Buterin’s sale. They tweeted, “Hey @VitalikButerin, we see that you sold your $Neiro bag. Our humble ask is that you donate part of the proceeds to a stray dog shelter. And thank you for building our playground!” This lighthearted response underscores the playful yet speculative atmosphere surrounding many memecoin projects.
We are the people's $Neiro, on the people's chain, @ethereum.
And a little fun fact: @VitalikButerin is currently our largest holder. (4% of supply, ~$130k value as of the time of this post)
— Neiro on Ethereum (CTO) (@neiroethcto) August 3, 2024
The incident with NEIRO is not isolated. The token market riffles with projects attempting to capitalize on trends or personalities for legitimacy. Four different NEIRO tokens are listed on CoinGecko, and multiple versions exist on platforms like Uniswap, some of which may be potential scams.
On July 28, Lookochain noted on his X post that a developer of a Solana-based Neiro version allegedly executed a rug pull, profiting $2.85 million. Moreover, blockchain analyst “Wazz” previously warned investors that largest NEIRO token on Ethereum may be a honeypot.
Although NEIRO had a meteoric rise, the entire memecoin category for crypto faced challages. The overall meme tokens market cap declined by roughly 16% in the past 24 hours, which equates to $35.8 billion. Some of these tokens affected were Pepe, Dogwifhat (WIF), Floki (FLOKI), Book of Meme (BOME) and among all of them slid by nearly 18% to 20%.
The post Memecoin’s Volatile Journey After Vitalik Buterin’s Airdrop Sale appeared first on Today NFT News.