This year has been filled with triumphs and tragedies for meme coin investors and enthusiasts alike. From shocking scams to the rise of AI-powered meme coins, these tokens have not disappointed in meeting the high-risk, high-reward profile of this volatile crypto market.
Meme coins have dominated the digital narrative of 2024, attracting significant interest from global investors. This surge reflects a shift towards these more speculative opportunities.
SLERF Pre-Sale Scandal
As always, the meme coin market has seen mistakes that have brought staggering consequences for token holders and investors.
In March, building on the presale momentum, the Solana-based meme coin SLERF saw a significant surge in trading volume, reaching $1.74 billion shortly after its launch. The hype attracted thousands of unique holders.
The price of Salaf surged by nearly 50% in just 24 hours, pushing its market cap to over $550 million. This incredible growth led to its listing on major centralized exchanges such as Gate.io, HTX, MEXC, and Bitget.
The coin soon faced a major setback when its founder burned all of the distributed liquidity and tokens during a technical operation. This incident occurred shortly after a successful pre-sale of $10.8 million.
The founder and developer of Salaf accidentally sent these coins to an inaccessible wallet while trying to remove the fraudulent tokens. This action resulted in the loss of investors’ funds and a significant reduction in the total supply of Salaf tokens.
The incident served as a reminder of the frenzied speculation surrounding meme coin pre-sales. However, shortly after the loss, crypto enthusiasts invested around $100 million in new meme coins on Solana in two days.
Despite the initial financial setback, the price of SLERF tokens has surged 745% since its launch. This volatility provided an opportunity for one trader to make significant profits, earning over $3 million in just 12 minutes through a strategic trading plan, according to Lookonchain.
BOME SUCCESS
Meme Book (BOME) also led this speculative rally in 2024, attracting significant capital through its controversial fundraising model. At one point, BOME was even among the top 10 meme coins by market cap.
Boom’s listing on Binance after its presale led to a massive surge in its market cap, surpassing $1 billion in three days. While it generated significant profits for early investors, this rapid growth also sparked debate about the ethical and financial stability of meme coin presales.
A series of scams
On the subject of flash withdrawals, the most famous one happened in November 2024. A 13-year-old kid launched a meme coin called Gene Z Quanto (QUANT) on Pump.Fin and live-streamed the entire experience.
As the token’s value soared, the young creator sold a large portion of his investment, causing the meme coin’s value to plummet. After selling 51 million quant tokens, he made $30,000 in profit. Before ending the broadcast, he took the time to make an inappropriate gesture to his viewers.
“I think this shows how nihilistic people have become that finance has become synonymous with pure gambling and as if stupidity is actually celebrated,” said YouTube fraud investigator Covizzella.
But in this case, the meme coin community retaliated by pumping even more money into Quant. After the boy sold his tokens, their value skyrocketed, reaching a market cap of $85 million. This price spike could have netted the creator a potential $4 million profit had he kept his initial investment.
However, the young creator took the opportunity to execute two additional flash withdrawals. He then launched two additional meme coins, Suri and Lucy, which were also pump and dump operations.
The Rise of Popular Meme Coins
Last year also saw prominent figures enter the crypto world. From rappers to influencers, 2024 has seen a rise in celebrity cryptocurrencies.
Australian rapper Iggy Azalea made headlines when she launched her MOTHER token on the Solana blockchain in May. By September, her token had reached a market cap of $132.83 million. Its price has since dropped significantly, currently standing at $0.03.
These findings were closely monitored by on-chain investigators, highlighting the complexities and risks of celebrity-led digital initiatives.
DADDY CODE for Andrew Tate
Controversial social media influencer Andrew Tate’s experiment with launching meme coins has proven more difficult. In June, Tate launched DADDY, which quickly rose after an intense promotional campaign.
However, the token has fallen back faster than it peaked. Blockchain data analytics firm Bubblemaps has uncovered suspicious trading patterns around the DADDY launch, stating that insiders had acquired 30% of the total supply prior to Tet’s hype activities.
“I want to reduce the supply of DADDY coins so that if you own one DADDY coin, you get karmic benefits from the universe,” Tate stated. “I will do this by buying the coin with my own money and burning it at certain market values. It will have a very limited supply so that owning any of them will be an honor.”
Although not strictly related, these wallets, funded via Binance, showed simultaneous trading activity, suggesting possible coordination. If any of these wallets were to initiate a sell, such coordinated actions could significantly impact the liquidity and stability of the DADDY market.
Meme Hawk Toah Girl and DJT Coins
Another player who tried to enter the meme coin market was Hailey Welch, better known as Hook Toah Girl. After her viral spitting clip, the influencer gained a huge online following on TikTok.
Earlier this month, Welsh Hawk launched its own meme coin, Twah, but the project quickly ended in chaos. Initially, the token saw a rapid rise in popularity, reaching a market cap of half a billion dollars.
But within just 20 minutes, the market cap had dropped to $60 million, sparking anger and confusion among investors. Similar to the Azalea and Tate cases, accusations of insider trading quickly emerged.
“The meme coin developer HAWK TUA made over $2M in 10 minutes! 96% of the supply is held in one pool. Key takeaway: Stay away from celebrity coins,” said crypto influencer BentoBoi.
One final case worth mentioning is the meme coin DJT, which is allegedly linked to President-elect Donald Trump and his son Barron.
In June, the Solana-backed token saw a surge in trading activity and a significant price increase following rumors that Trump had officially endorsed the token. According to DEX Screener data, DJT temporarily reached a market cap of over $5 million at 22:30 on June 17.
Roger Stone, a former adviser during Trump’s first presidential campaign, quickly cleared up the rumors, saying that Trump and his son were not involved in any way with the DJT meme coin. Despite this clarification, no official statement has been issued by the president-elect or his son.
The Emergence of AI-Powered Meme Cryptocurrencies
The intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and cryptocurrencies has attracted significant attention this year, raising important questions about its potential impact on the future.
Central to this narrative is Terminal Truth, an AI chatbot who recently achieved millionaire status through his involvement with a meme coin built on Solana.
Developed by AI researcher Andy Airey, the bot runs its own X account autonomously and produces content without human intervention. Its platform also promotes the “Gospel of Guts,” a fictional religion.
The project remained relatively unnoticed until July when venture capitalist Marc Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz Terminal discovered the truth and subsequently donated $50,000 in Bitcoin.
GOAT Coin from Truth Terminal
Shortly after this investment, Terminal Truth expressed interest in launching a token, and did so in October with the development of the “GOAT” meme coin on the Solana blockchain.
Although Terminal Truth did not directly create or launch the GOAT token, its association with the meme coin led to a strong market rally, pushing GOAT’s market cap to over $400 million.
As a result, Terminal’s real-world crypto holdings, including 1.93 million GOAT tokens, have soared to over $832,000. The AI wallet has received multiple crypto donations, surpassing $1 million in just one day.
Given the rapid growth of the GOAT token, BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes predicted that its market cap could reach $1 billion. He attributed this potential to the token’s integration of artificial intelligence and its adaptation to the general meme coin culture.
“When I read about the AI launching its own meme coin and religion, I jumped right in,” Hayes said in a post on X.
The success of Terminal Truth and the GOAT meme coin demonstrates the huge potential of AI to have a major impact on the cryptocurrency sector, and shows how quickly meme coin volatility can change.
In the past year, several meme coins have risen to success. Ai16z, a Solana-based decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) led by an AI agent, surpassed a market cap of $1 billion, becoming the first to achieve this feat.
Launched in October, Solana meme coin Fartcoin (FARTCOIN) followed suit. The token surged to all-time highs, reaching a market cap of $1 billion in mid-December.
Remarkably, the current market cap of these coins exceeds that of more than a third of all publicly traded companies in the United States despite not having the established business characteristics of these companies or years of operating history.
ZachXBT Unveils 11 Crypto Wallets of Prominent Meme Coin Trader
Meme coins have proven to be one of the best performing narratives in 2024. According to CoinGecko, the total market cap of meme coins is $111 billion at the time of writing. The massive rise in popularity of meme coins has drawn mixed reviews from experienced investors.
These views seek to predict whether meme coins are poised for a period of significant growth or a major market correction.
Prominent meme coin analyst and trader Murad Mahmudov is particularly optimistic about the success of these tokens.
“Meme coins are growing on both Solana and Ethereum. We are in the early stages of a meme coin super cycle,” Murad said in a post on Oct. 10.
But a report from crypto fraud investigator ZachXBT casts doubt on Murad’s predictions. It revealed that the meme coin analyst is using at least 11 separate wallets to hide his personal assets. These wallets contain around $24 million in meme coins.
Since Murad's analysis of meme coin holdings has always been optimistic, it has enabled him to reap astronomical rewards.
Data from Lookonchain reveals that Murad purchased 35.69 million SPX tokens from multiple wallets between June and August while promoting SPX’s growth potential. By October, these SPX holdings had reached a 61x ROI.
While ZachXBT did not explicitly state that Murad was paid to run a marketing campaign for any of these coins, he clearly showed his disapproval.
“Murad is promoting small meme coins to thousands and thousands of followers while controlling the supply and setting expectations very high. People deserve to know the wallets so they can make informed decisions,” he said.
Schemes like these are not uncommon in the context of new token launches. However, as cryptocurrencies become more integrated with traditional finance, regulatory oversight and increased transparency may help reduce the prevalence of such activities.