The crypto community is sounding the alarm on the rise of “peak degeneracy,” as founders of memecoins on the Solana blockchain have made millions of dollars through token presales in the past 72 hours alone.
According to aggregated data from Cointelegraph and cited by crypto researcher 0xGumshoe, traders have invested approximately $100 million worth of Solana’s SOL in an attempt to purchase new Solana memecoins in the past three days.
These tokens are being sold to raise funds for unreleased coins through a controversial presale model, with notable examples including Book of Meme (BOME), Nap (NAP), Nostalgia (NOS), and others.
Pseudonymous crypto investor Nick expressed his astonishment at the situation, stating, “This is truly peak degeneracy. Investing $180k and $90k in memecoins.” He attached a screenshot showing large purchases of an undisclosed memecoin.
Source: @NCashOfficial on X
The memecoin frenzy began when a coin called Book of Meme was launched using the controversial crowdfunding model. Created by pseudonymous artist Darkfarms1 on March 14, BOME initially had a value of around $4 million. However, within 56 hours, its market capitalization soared to a peak of $1.45 billion, marking a staggering 36,000% increase.
One early investor, Sundayfunday.sol, who is a personal friend of BOME’s creator, turned an investment of 420.69 SOL (worth $72,000 at the time) into a mind-boggling $32 million in less than three days, as reported by blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain on March 17.
Source: @lookonchain on X
A presale involves investors sending cryptocurrency to a wallet address and receiving tokens in return when the token becomes available. However, there is no guarantee that investors will actually receive tokens, making presales a popular method for fraudsters and scammers to exploit unsuspecting investors.
Ethereum educator Anthony Sassano criticized the presale model, calling anyone who sent money to a random wallet address in hopes of receiving tokens “dumb as hell.” He expressed frustration that despite the lessons learned from past scams, people are still falling for Ponzi schemes.
Source: @sassal0x on X
The memecoin frenzy has gone beyond the crypto community and gained attention from public figures. Entrepreneur David Sacks, known for co-hosting the All In podcast, saw his memecoin generate significant drama, allowing one fortunate user to reportedly make around $39,000.
Source: @DavidSacks on X
A pseudonymous user on X, DeFiRabbitHole, stated that when Sacks first started promoting his memecoin on the platform, they expected another memecoin associated with the All In podcast to also gain value. So, when Elon Musk tweeted, “Ok fine, I will buy ur coin,” in response to podcast host Jason Calacanis, the affiliated JASON coin skyrocketed, turning their initial investment of 1 SOL into 200 SOL.
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Over $100M raised in 3 days as Memecoin presales reach the epitome of degeneracy