Solana-based memecoins launched using a controversial presale model went on a wild ride last week, and some lucky degens hit it big. According to reports, traders sent around $100 million worth of $SOL to new memecoins on Solana last week, causing the network to struggle to keep up with the boost of activity.
As degens scrambled to get in on the latest memecoins, Solana surpassed Ethereum in trading volume on March 16th — hitting over $3.5 billion ($1.1 billion more than Ethereum), according to DefiLlama.
Some of the popular meme coins included Book of Meme ($BOME), Nostalgia ($NOS), and Nap ($NAP). The coins were released through a presale model that enables coins to generate investments before actually delivering the token.
$BOME took the #1 spot for the hyped coins, rising over 36,000% within 56 hours and reaching a market cap of $1.45 billion. The coin was released on March 14th by the pseudonymous artist Darkfarms1. One investor that goes by sundayfunday.sol managed to turn 420.69 $SOL (around $72K at the time) into $32 million in less than three days. However, it’s been reported that the investor is a friend of $BOME’s creator, which is a bit suspicious at best.
$NAP also went from a $20 million market cap to over $330 million in less than a day.
Of course, not everyone is hyped about the memecoins. Some criticized the presale model where investors are sending $SOL to a wallet addresses without any guarantee of receiving tokens in return. Furthermore, with the increased activity, the Solana network was slow to keep up, and many Crypto X users lamented the frequent failed transactions.
As Solana memecoin founders raked in millions, the price of $SOL also skyrocketed. It’s up over 37% on the week and currently hovering around $203 per coin, as per data from CoinGecko. Worth noting, the gains on Solana last week led to the crypto overtaking Binance’s $BNB coin to become the fourth largest crypto by market cap.
Solana Continues to Build its Ecosystem
Solana, once pegged as “the Ethereum killer,” has been on a wild ride the last couple of years. Dropping from its all-time high of nearly $260 per coin in November 2021 to under $10 per coin in December 2022, the lightning fast blockchain has recently been on a tear and doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.
While much of its recent success can be attributed to the rise in popularity of Solana-based memecoins, that’s not the whole story. Solana has also been busy building in the bear market, and now it looks like the hard work is paying off. At Rarity Sniper, we’ve covered dozens of articles about Solana this year. Here are some of the top headlines:
- Solana Gaming Project MixMob Acquires Stormtroopers IP
- Solana Web3 Game ‘Nyan Heroes’ Arrives to Epic Game Store
- Solana Phone Loaded with $BONK Token Sells Out
- Solana NFT Project Mad Lads Soars Amid Ecosystem Boom
- VISA Expands Cross-Border Settlement Program to Solana
- Solana Unveils ChatGPT Plugin Integration
As you can see above, Web3 gaming projects, critical partnerships, and new integrations have also played a role in Solana’s success. Whether or not the Solana memecoin hype will continue is anyone’s guess. But for now, many traders on Solana are in full degen mode and hoping to get in on the action. At Rarity Sniper, we’ll keep an eye out for any updates to the story.