This year was filled with wins and woes for meme coin investors and enthusiasts alike. From shocking rug pulls to the rise of AI-driven meme coins, these tokens did not disappoint in fulfilling this volatile crypto market’s high-risk, high-reward profile.
Meme coins dominated the 2024 crypto narrative, capturing significant global investor interest. This surge reflects a shift towards these more speculative opportunities.
The SLERF Pre-Sale Debacle
As always, the meme coin market saw slip-ups that reaped incredible consequences for token holders and investors.
In March, building on the momentum of its pre-sale, the Solana-based meme coin Slerf (SLERF) witnessed a remarkable surge in trading volume, reaching $1.74 billion shortly after its launch. The hype attracted thousands of unique holders.
Slerf’s price surged nearly 50% in just 24 hours, pushing its market capitalization above $550 million. This impressive growth led to listings on major centralized exchanges like Gate.io, HTX, MEXC, and Bitget.
The token soon faced a significant setback when its founder burnt all the liquidity and airdrop tokens during a technical operation. This incident occurred shortly after a successful $10.8 million pre-sale.
Slerf’s founder and developer mistakenly sent these coins to an inaccessible wallet while attempting to remove scam tokens. This action resulted in the loss of investor funds and significantly reduced the total supply of Slerf tokens.
The incident served as a reminder of the frenetic speculation surrounding meme coin pre-sales. Even so, shortly after the loss, crypto enthusiasts invested around $100 million in new Solana meme coins in two days.
The Infamous AMA Session after Slerf Founder Burnt All Presale Tokens. Source: X (formerly Twitter)
