Solana Meme Coins Suffer Severe Decline

Solana meme coins have faced a brutal downturn this year, leading to significant losses for retail investors.

Most Solana Meme Coins Plunge

Many Solana (SOL) meme coins have experienced double-digit crashes, with the overall market cap shrinking to $10 billion. According to CoinGecko, this is down from over $25 billion in January.

• Official Trump (TRUMP), launched on Jan. 19, has plummeted from $103 to $16, with its market cap dropping from over $14 billion to $3.27 billion, costing investors $10.7 billion.
• Pudgy Penguins (PENGU) market cap declined from $3.2 billion to $554 million.
• Melania (MELANIA) dropped from $1.9 billion to $143 million.

Only a few meme coins have thrived in the last month; Would token increased by 24%, while Comedian, Unicorn Fart Dust, and Just a Chill Guy saw double-digit rises.

Insiders and Pump.fun: Top Beneficiaries

The ongoing decline in SOL meme coins has resulted in immense losses for investors, with the main beneficiaries being Solana and the creators of meme coins like Pump.fun. Solana’s network generated significant fees, earning $748 million over the past 180 days and $328 million this year, surpassing Ethereum in fees generated for the year.

Pump.fun, the leading token generator on Solana, generated $68 million in fees this month and $121 million in January. The Solana DEX networks, including Raydium, Meteora, Jupiter, and Orca, have also seen volume surges, managing over $1 trillion in the past few months.

Insiders and early adopters managed to profit significantly by dumping their tokens. For instance, the most profitable trader of Melania made $82 million and sold all their holdings, while a winner of Official Trump took home $29 million.

The pattern appears across most Solana meme coins, potentially explaining Solana’s price crash, especially following the recent Libra situation, where prices initially surged but then plummeted.

SOL is down over 40% from its peak earlier this year.

Why Solana is the Go-To Blockchain for Meme Coins

One of the main advantages of Solana is its ability to process over 65,000 transactions per second (TPS) while maintaining extremely low fees, setting it apart from Ethereum’s high gas fees that may hinder micro-transactions.

The Solana Program Library allows developers to deploy new coins swiftly. Platforms such as Pump.fun enable users to create meme coins in just minutes, democratizing token creation and fostering rapid development in meme-driven assets.

Strong Community and Retail Interest

The success of meme coins like Bonk (BONK) and Dogwifhat (WIF) has helped cultivate a robust retail market and community interest, which encourages speculation and broad adoption, making it a vibrant space for meme coin enthusiasts.

These meme coins also quickly list on major centralized and decentralized exchanges, ensuring high liquidity and helping new projects gain momentum quickly.

NFT and Meme Culture Synergy

Numerous Solana-based meme coins utilize NFTs for branding, marketing, and community engagement, enhancing their viral nature. Trading bots like BonkBot and Maestro further assist users in immediately buying and selling meme coins through Telegram apps.

Read more: LIBRA’s collapse becomes Solana’s biggest scandal since FTX: How Jupiter and Meteora left retail investors rekt.