Crypto Presale Frenzy Raises Over $122M Worth Of SOL In A Week

The crypto market is down as most cryptocurrencies have registered red numbers for the past few days. Expectations of making big profits out of the bullish sentiment are momentarily halted. And while many patiently wait for the prices to rise again, others are seemingly looking for different options to make their bags.

The “memecoin mania” has been at the forefront of the market, stealing the spotlight since February. As a result, investors might see a window of opportunity to profit from these tokens.

During the previous bull cycle, Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) were at the center of the stage, with millions of dollars invested in the tokens. This time, the biggest memecoins by market cap are being outshined by some of the newer players.

Dogwifhat and other Solana-based tokens have led the way during this leg, registering massive gains in the last month. Recently, the presale and launch of Book of MEME (BOME), which started as a small experimental project, saw its surge to a $1 billion market cap in a few days.

The memecoin surge has now turned into a memecoin presale frenzy, with presale launching left and right after becoming the “meta” of the market.

PRE SALE META pic.twitter.com/z02vQWnnhz

— duss (@dussincook) March 18, 2024

The meta term, borrowed from the gaming community, refers to the Most Effective Tactic Available. As such, investors and scammers are equally attempting to take profit off the trend.

Crypto investigator ZachXBT revealed on X that the current “presale meta” trend has raised $122.5 million since March 12. Taking the BOME project as a starting point, the crypto detective counted 27 different presales from Solana-based memecoins since that date. These projects raised approximately 655,000 SOL, according to the crypto sleuth calculations.

I was interested to see how much SOL has been sent as a result of the presale meta and calculated >655,000 SOL ($122.5M) raised from 27 presales. pic.twitter.com/dvsW4TSoov

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) March 19, 2024

To put the numbers into perspective, ZachXBT highlighted that these figures only account for the projects on the Solana chain in the last seven days. This means that the calculations are only one part of the bigger image as the presales before March 12, and chains like Ethereum, Base, and BSC are excluded.

The biggest raiser on the list was the SMOLE token by visual artist Dekadente. This project received 169,982 SOL during the presale and has seen notable support from the community.

Similarly, the recently launched Slerf raised over 50,000 SOL. However, the token faced a dramatic launch after its creator accidentally burned the tokens reserved for the presale participants airdrop.

Many of the presales raised millions in a matter of minutes, which hints at impressive participation from the crypto community. However, many suggest that the massive figures raised come from “fabricated fomo” and “insiders sending sol that they’ll eventually get back.”

Despite raising millions in SOL, the presale meta trend left investors with nothing. As the investigator highlights, many of the presales on his list have seen a “hard rug” or the tokens’ momentum quickly fading after launch. As a result, the presale participants’ investments vanished or diminished considerably.

depends if you mean hard rug or just presale contributors down bad

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) March 19, 2024

Moreover, scammers have taken their chance to profit off the presale frenzy. Phishing scams under the presale posts have skyrocketed, with impersonating accounts trying to drain investors’ wallets or collect whatever amount people meant to send to the presale addresses.

Members of the crypto community have expressed their concerns over the presale trend. Many crypto investors consider the trend might create memecoin fatigue, which could hurt the organic projects aiming for long-term stability.