I played with a 100k meme coin on the chain and made 80,000 yuan in a month

Author: Joyce, BlockBeats

Editor: Jack, BlockBeats

"I've quit my job for a few months and have been full-time into memes." Meme player Lu Qi (pseudonym) told BlockBeats. Four months ago, the meme coin BOME on Solana attracted many crypto newcomers to start playing memes, with its market cap skyrocketing from 0 to over $1.5 billion in just three days, a rise of more than a hundred times. Lu Qi was one of them, "When I was playing memes, I had about 30,000 to 40,000 in my wallet, and I haven't added any more money in these months. Calculating it, I could earn around 70,000 to 80,000 each month."

Many others share a similar situation to Lu Qi, trading only meme coins, almost living on-chain 24 hours a day, waiting for a mere 3-minute opportunity to enter, with the holding time for meme coins usually measured in minutes.

The vast majority of tokens they trade come from the token issuance platform Pump.fun on Solana. For months, Pump.fun has maintained an average daily revenue of over $600,000, with more than 10,000 new tokens appearing on Pump.fun every day. Many people shuttle between fragmented liquidity, seeking stage-specific guaranteed returns in various ways.

500K Cap, Only Playing Small Ones

Four months ago, if a meme coin on Ethereum had a market cap below $1 million, most people would speculate that the token consensus was loose and the team too "shoddy" to dare to invest. However, on Solana, the cost and time required to reach a consensus that can actually make money is much smaller, so the distinction between hunter and prey is merely a matter of minutes.

3 Minutes, Hunter Becomes Prey

Jia Wei (pseudonym), who has been in the game for less than a year and has just started intensively playing memes, has already felt "behind." "Someone in the group asked what uni is, and my first reaction was uniswap, but actually, everyone was talking about unibot."

Typically, when traders see a token contract, they need to copy it to a charting tool for analysis before deciding whether to buy. For meme players, this process is measured in minutes. When a token's 'buy signal' appears, if more than ten minutes have passed, one needs to be wary of the impending 'net closing moment.'

Meme coin IQ (left), ZESTY (right) line charts

The principle of quick in-and-out is simple; players believe that any meme coin with uplift expectations must go through a calling phase. Therefore, to get cheap chips early, one needs to jump in before others. Entering a few minutes late can mean a price difference of several times. If the profit is small, that's fine, but most of the time, entering three minutes late could mean "buying at a high."

For example, this meme coin CLOWN showed signs of rising before 01:20, then surged over 4 times in the next ten minutes, only to drop back to its initial position. The token contract shared in the group had already gone through monitoring tools releasing signals, hunters capturing information to enter, and group members discovering and sharing it. By the time traders see it, they still have to go through the process of selecting the contract, analyzing it on a charting tool, and placing an order. Just a few minutes' difference in entry time can turn a doubling into a loss.

Left: Meme coin CLOWN's second-by-second chart, right: Community discussion about a meme coin

Finding Tenfold in Small Caps

The quick in-and-out strategy stems from meme players' conservative estimates of market cap, which is the game rule in the meme market. In some Telegram groups sharing meme coins, group members range from four to five hundred to several thousand. As long as one can raise a meme coin's market cap from under 100K to several hundred K, early investors can make enough profit.

Traders need to analyze their position within the "pot." If newcomers can enter at 100K-200K, they can also achieve several times the return. 500K is considered the net closing position by many meme players, while a market cap of 600K is seen as "a bit high." Beyond that, more certainty signals are needed to "hold on."

A trader's transaction records on meme coins ABDUL and MUMI, with peak market caps of 247.5K and 483.5K respectively

The generally low market cap of meme coins also has another reason: participants' capital is not very large. After communicating with several meme players, BlockBeats found that many players have capital around 3-5 SOL, trading a maximum of two tokens at a time, with each trade amounting from 0.5 SOL to 2 SOL. "I feel that when the overall market is bad, the meme market tends to be quite hot," Lu Qi said.

Increasingly Mature Tools

Tokens with a guaranteed uplift expectation often require snatching at the bottom market cap. For credibility reasons, meme coins shared in the community usually have a market cap above 100K, but to achieve real high multiples, one needs to enter when the market cap is in the tens of K.

"Waiting for others to output in the group won't make money," for Bei Bei (pseudonym), group messages only serve as auxiliary references for trading; proactive monitoring is essential to maintain control. BlockBeats found that frequent meme players often use two or three tools simultaneously, with GMGN, NFT Sniper (also known as abot), and Bullx being the most commonly used.

Checking token trends is just the most basic function of these tools. Preparing for meme trading can be divided into "finding people from coins" and "finding coins from people." In this regard, some tools are suitable for making boards and analyzing chip distribution, while others are more sensitive in alerting address movements, and some perform better in trading speed.

Knowing how to use the tools is just the first step; finding the right smart money and sniper tools for oneself is the most important.

GMGN and NFT Sniper have outstanding advantages in checking the chip distribution of relevant stakeholders. GMGN is relatively beginner-friendly, allowing users to view indicators such as devs, early buyers, large holders, smart money, KOLs, etc., and can create a watchlist of wallets. In the "finding coins from people" phase, both GMGN and NFT Sniper provide on-chain movement alert functions, allowing users to add on-chain addresses they want to monitor to a watchlist. When these addresses engage in trading activities, users can receive alerts on the web or via mobile tgbot, obtaining information in real time.

Left: GMGN; Right: NFT Sniper

Meme player Xu Bai (pseudonym) maintains the same smart money list with friends. Whenever a new signal pops up, Xu Bai checks how many watched wallets are in play, using GMGN to look at the historical trades of the token's front-row addresses to decide whether to buy. When signals appear frequently, Jia Wei first checks NFT Sniper, which has fewer icons on the interface, making the information retrieval process more convenient, along with more refined automated trading strategies.

Left: GMGN; Right: NFT Sniper

In addition to equipping suitable tools from these angles, traders seeking more alpha signals won't solely rely on smart money's indications but will actively look for newer coins, such as meme coins still in the internal market. The internal market refers to new coins on Pump.fun with a market cap below 67.8K, before liquidity shifts to Raydium. Most new coins don't fill the internal market, but a few "signal" candidates may emerge.

In such coins, meme players assume they are competing with the market makers for chips, using the term "stuff" to refer to buying in. This leads to faster discovery speeds. Bei Bei prefers using Bullx, stating, "The experience of monitoring new coins is great, and trading is also fast."

Bullx page

The functions of GMGN, NFT Sniper, and Bullx overlap, each with its own advantages. In the community, meme players often discuss their experiences using these tools, comparing their response speeds. Mastering the use of suitable tools for meme trading is considered the entry point for getting into meme trading.

Devs Must Run, But Devs Are Still Needed

To win in trading, the most important thing is to understand who your opponent is and try to predict their actions. In the meme market, the role of the opponent has changed several times, from devs to "CTO teams," from "conspiracy groups" to smart money.

CTO Becomes a Clear Consensus

As early as the end of last year, when the Solana ecosystem was in the meme season, the community discussed the rug pull traps of meme coin devs. After a token rises, if the dev withdraws liquidity or sells the coins acquired at a very low cost, they can take away all the liquidity from those who got in.

At that time, the main charting tool was birdeye, which could only differentiate traders by three different trading volumes, with the dev team hiding in the shadows. However, with the emergence of on-chain tracking tools like GMGN and NFT Sniper, this situation has been completely changed, as both can clearly show the chip situation of devs and early traders.

Left: birdeye; Middle: GMGN; Right: NFT Sniper

Issuing a coin on Pump.fun only requires 0.02 SOL, while once the token surges to the external market, the dev can gain several times the profit. Now, with clear signals, there is an added layer of insurance. Many meme players have told BlockBeats that one of their trading principles is not to buy meme coins where "the dev is still in." "The developer is a ticking time bomb; my habit is that if I see the dev is still in, I won't buy. I'll wait for a dev sell signal before considering entering," Lu Qi told BlockBeats.

Thus, most meme coins can only rise after the dev sells. When Jia Wei first started using GMGN, he found that many meme coins' devs would sell right at the opening, completely missing out on the subsequent rise. For instance, in the following chart, DLORF and OOO began to rise respectively 10 minutes and 1 hour after the dev sold all tokens, with increases of several dozen times.

The red DS icon in the image indicates the dev's token selling operation

However, dev sell can only be considered a signal for excluding a landmine; meme coins that can rise mostly rely on the "CTO" phase.

CTO stands for Community Takeover, which refers to the situation where the original developers abandon the project and the user community takes over. When a crypto project is taken over by a CTO, it means that the landmine of developer insider trading has been eliminated for retail investors, with the community leading the project's development. For example, Satoshi Nakamoto's disappearance and Bitcoin's rise can be seen as the most classic CTO model.

In the meme space, CTO manifests as a team buying up rug-pulled meme coins and continuously operating the meme coin community on Twitter and Telegram. "For a while, picking up those coins that were rug-pulled and then taken over by a CTO yielded good guaranteed returns," Xu Bai recalled. "When a token was taken over by a CTO, I would enter the Telegram group organized by the team to check the community atmosphere, judging the token's upside potential based on whether the team played music, whether everyone was engaged in lively discussions, and whether they would pay for DEX updates."

However, not all meme coins taken over by a CTO can be safely entered. In understanding CTOs, Xu Bai's perspective has shifted from sensing the community atmosphere to analyzing chip distribution.

10 Seconds to Enter, Group Sitting on the Market

Now, the CTO process has become a standard phase in the lifecycle of meme coins, with all meme coins learning to promote this selling point. GMGN has marked tokens with "CTO takeover," and most meme coins on the hot list have CTO labels, even if the coin has been online for less than an hour.

For example, in the following chart, the dev quickly bought into the token after its launch but sold out completely after holding for only 27 seconds, making a profit of just 0.01 SOL (about $2.08) on a cost of 5 SOL. After the dev sold, MARU began to rise, increasing 20 times within 50 minutes.

The yellow icon in the image indicates "CTO community takeover."

Are there really so many quick-reacting, effective calling CTO teams? "Most CTOs are self-directed and self-acted; this has become common knowledge in meme trading," Xu Bai stated. After interviewing several meme players, BlockBeats found that players are already well aware of the CTO tricks. Some claim to be "divine team," "I've seen four or five just claiming to be the GME CTO team," Lu Qi recalled. Others are "light-speed CTOs," where "the dev sells for a profit, then immediately CTOs to take another wave."

Taking MARU as an example, just 10 seconds after the dev sold the coins, several addresses quickly bought in, becoming large holders. After achieving a profit of 20-40 times, they concentrated their sell-off, causing MARU's price to drop 52% in 7 minutes. In the community's view, this situation is likely the dev team engaging in insider trading under the guise of a CTO.

MARU's large holder transaction records

Meme players have already developed countermeasures; the profit situation of large holders is also a must-watch indicator for meme players. "If I see large holders just starting to enter, I might try to follow them. If they make too much profit, I need to be cautious about entering," Jia Wei said. Xu Bai has already changed his strategy, "Now, when I encounter a good opportunity, if the dev is still in, I will follow."

Milady Cabals and "Conspiracy Groups"

The logic of CTO has shifted from "community governance" to a process of "changing from individual market making to group market making," bringing hidden rug landmines back into retail investors' considerations. However, for seasoned meme players, this process presents opportunities for profit. Milady cabals were the first "code words" Jia Wei learned when he started trading memes.

Searching for "Milady cabals" on Twitter reveals many discussions, initially centered around late May. Lu Qi recalled, "For a while, KOLs with Milady avatars would call out on Twitter, and soon several others with Milady avatars would help retweet. The meme coins they called out had high market caps."

Thus, opening the notification bell for this group and monitoring their on-chain addresses became an important basis for meme players during this period. This discovery became so popular that even Pump.fun's official account once joined in on the joke, "I am serious about being in 13 Milady cabals)."

Yesterday, FWOG, which was initially overlooked due to being a copycat, achieved a 50-fold increase in 7 hours and a trading volume exceeding $60 million. Its CTO team caller @deecayz's Twitter avatar is a Milady, and he showcases two previously successful meme coins in his bio.

When FWOG reached its peak, the top three holders of FWOG sold off to take profits, and on-chain monitor ai_9684xtpa analyzed that this operation caused the token to plummet 73% in a short time. However, this did not affect deecayz's record, as "FWOG" became his third successful project.

deecayz's Twitter bio

However, Milady is not the only standard for judging "conspiracy groups." Among meme players, teams that preemptively accumulate a large number of low-priced chips and then push up a meme coin through calling are also regarded as "conspiracy groups." Meme players need to continuously search for new opponent organizations, "I only occasionally check on those Milady now; I've cleared my watchlist once," Bei Bei said.

Staying at the Table

Even with multiple successful experiences, Lu Qi still spends up to a dozen hours a day monitoring the market. "Most of the time it's tedious, but often the more tedious it is, the more you should wait for that seemingly inexplicable opportunity."

Following Signals May Be False Smart Money

Players who can continuously make money in memes believe that trading signals are actively crafted from the flow of information and do not wait for the wealth code to fall into their laps.

As more and more people learn to track KOL addresses and smart money addresses already marked by public tools, to make money, players need to enhance their information analysis capabilities. "Following signals is becoming increasingly difficult," Lu Qi said. The real wealth code is always in a state of Schrödinger.

Many obstacles lie between players and true smart money. First is the on-chain noise; many people look for smart money addresses among those with high single-coin win rates, but from the smart money perspective, it is not necessary to achieve tenfold or even hundredfold returns on every investment. As long as the pot is large enough and the capital is substantial, even a 20% increase can accumulate considerable profits. "Not all low-point purchases are smart money; those pursuing long-term returns also do not want to be discovered by the market," Xu Bai said.

Secondly, there is the failure of information disparity. If the following pot is very small, the price will immediately rise several times after smart money buys in, and blindly following can only make oneself the exit liquidity for smart money. Crypto KOL 0xSun recently wrote a share from the "following perspective," addressing this issue.

Moreover, information disparity can only apply in small ranges. Retail investors want to track "insider pots," but operators can also squeeze the space for retail investors to grab low-priced chips through various means such as washing pots, killing followers, and creating matrix addresses. Recently, KOL "Wang Xiaoer, who swore to be a diamond hand," who made significant profits from meme coins, urged his followers on Twitter not to follow his trades, explaining that he prefers to pick up meme coins with extremely low market caps that have been out for many days, but "after being followed, this strategy becomes meaningless." This can be seen as an example of the diminishing information disparity dividends of smart money in the following trend.

Many players BlockBeats communicated with have also realized this, "Addresses followed by many people are not very valuable; one needs to constantly find new wallets to survive," Lu Qi, Bei Bei, and Xu Bai all spend considerable effort maintaining their watchlist of addresses.

Periodically Failing Strategies

If one were to summarize a universal meme trading strategy, it would be "maintain respect for experience, but experience can quickly fail."

For instance, trading memes around Trump news used to be a high-win-rate wealth code, but it has now been exhausted.

On the day Trump was attacked, Lu Qi was serving as a groomsman for a friend. "I woke up very early that day, and after seeing the news about Trump, my first reaction was to look for related meme coins. I didn't have time to monitor, so I quickly scanned many coins at once." Among the coins Lu Qi bought, EAR achieved an 80-fold increase in just 7 hours after going online, "I sold off along the way but still made a decent profit."

"Attention is the most important; whenever Trump is in the news, there will definitely be coins that come out." This judgment formed in Lu Qi's mind after that. A few days ago, during Trump's speech at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, meme players went from delaying attendance to fully squatting until the speech was completed, searching for betting targets among various keyword tokens that popped up in real-time on Pump.fun. Among dozens of related meme coins, none had a market cap exceeding 500K.

Pump.fun homepage during Trump's speech

That day, the owner of Kabosu, the dog that inspired the meme coin DOGE, showcased his new pet, NEIRO, on Twitter. Just after Trump's speech ended, the meme coin Neiro had already attracted $50 million in trading volume. "I messed up; I didn't expect the dog to not outrun Trump," lamented the meme player who missed out in the group.

If KOL address movements are taken as leading signals, the meme coin "Neiro" and "NEIRO" battle that day would also be completely chaotic. NFT Sniper showed that 31 KOL addresses participated in trading Neiro, while 28 addresses participated in NEIRO. In hindsight, many KOLs also "messed up."

The previously mentioned KOL deecayz, who called out the 50-fold FWOG, had shared three meme coins with the community CTO the day before, one of which, the meme coin BEIRO, had a market cap that did not exceed 30K.

There Are No New Things in Meme

In the view of Zhang Ran (pseudonym), who entered the crypto industry a few years ago, "the evolution of the meme market is similar to that of ICOs a few years ago; there's nothing new."

After experiencing the crazy bubble of ICOs, the crypto industry spent several years exploring new narratives like NFTs and DeFi, forming segmented directions in investment perspectives such as cross-chain interoperability, scaling L2, and RWA. But now, mainstream crypto investors mockingly say, "Value investing is a waste; go all-in on MEME and live in a palace."

Even after spending a lot of time, most meme players still have a low win rate. "Small losses and big gains" is the ideal settlement outcome for meme players, "On one hand, you need to stay cautious to remain at the table, and on the other hand, you need to seize opportunities to be a hunter."

BlockBeats found that many players in the meme community only entered the crypto space during the Bitcoin inscription boom at the end of last year, while the recent BOME and SLERF solidified their choice in the meme market. When asked if they would explore and participate in other crypto areas beyond memes, Lu Qi replied, "I'm not a newbie or a victim anymore." "The purpose of creating an investment portfolio is to hedge risks; I will try to avoid blind gambling, so I won't participate when my energy is limited," Xu Bai said.

Special thanks to the interviewees: Lu Qi, Xu Bai, Bei Bei, Jia Wei, Zhang Ran