Solana meme coins have suffered a harsh reversal this year, costing retail investors billions of dollars.
Most Solana meme coins plunge
Most Solana (SOL) meme coins have crashed by double digits, with the total market cap tumbling to $10 billion.
According to CoinGecko, this valuation has dropped from over $25 billion in January.
Official Trump (TRUMP), which was launched on Jan. 19, has crashed from $103 to $16, while the market cap has moved from over $14 billion in January to $3.27 billion today, meaning that investors are down $10.7 billion.Â
Pudgy Penguins (PENGU) token’s market cap has dropped from $3.2 bilion to $554 million, while Melania (MELANIA) has fallen from $1.9 billion to $143 million.Â
Only a handful of meme coins have soared in the last 30 days. Would token has jumped by 24%, while Comedian, Unicorn Fart Dust, and Just a chill guy have soared by double digits.
Insiders, Pump.fun were top beneficiaries
The ongoing SOL meme coin crash has cost many investors billions of dollars. The only beneficiaries are Solana, meme coin generators like Pump.fun, and insiders.
Solana’s network has generated substantial fees in the past few months, mostly from these meme coins. Data by TokenTerminal shows that Solana has made $748 million in fees in the last 180 days and $328 million this year. It has even beaten Ethereum (ETH) in the fees generated this year.Â
Pump.fun, the biggest token generator in Solana, has also made substantial sums of money. According to DeFi Llama, Pump has made $68 million in fees this month and $121 million in January.
Solana DEX networks like Raydium, Meteora, Jupiter, and Orca also benefited as their volumes surged. They have handled over $1 trillion in volume in the past few months.
Insiders and early adopters, popularly known as snipers, were among the top beneficiaries. On-chain data shows that most of them have dumped their tokens, making millions of dollars.Â
A good example of this is Melania. Nansen data shows that the most profitable trader made $82 million and has sold all of them. As shown below, most profitable MELANIA investors have dumped all their tokens.Â
The same goes for Official Trump, where the most profitable trader made $29 million and sold everything. Most of the holders have sold their tokens.Â
A closer look at most other Solana meme coins shows the same thing. This also likely explains why the price of Solana is crashing, especially after the recent Libra debacle, where it initially jumped and subsequently crashed within hours.
SOL is down over 40% from its highest level this year.
Why Solana is the go-to blockchain for meme coins
One of the coin’s biggest advantages is its high-speed, low-cost transactions. With the ability to process over 65,000 transactions per second (TPS) and minimal fees, Solana differs from Ethereum, where high gas fees can hinder micro-transactions.
Also, the Solana Program Library makes it easy for developers to deploy new coins. Platforms like Pump.fun allow users to launch meme coins in minutes, democratizing access to token creation and fueling the rapid growth of meme-driven assets.
Strong community and retail Interest
The success of meme coins like Bonk (BONK) and Dogwifhat (WIF) has cultivated a strong retail and community-driven market. This environment encourages speculation and viral adoption, making it the perfect playground for meme coin enthusiasts.
These meme coins also gain quick listings on major centralized exchanges and decentralized exchanges like Raydium (RAY) and Jupiter (JUP). This ensures high liquidity and accessibility, allowing new projects to gain traction rapidly.
NFT and Meme Culture Synergy
Many Solana-based meme coins also leverage NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, for branding, marketing, and community engagement, further boosting their viral appeal.
Tading bots like BonkBot and Maestro also act as tools that allow users to instantly buy and sell meme coins directly from Telegram.