In summary
- A Solana memecoin creator made a rug-pull after reaching a market cap of $1 million with his QUANT token.
- The rug-pull caused a 54% drop in price, but then the token reached a capitalization of $85 million, fueled by traders’ revenge.
- Despite the scam, the creator continued to launch new tokens such as “I’m Sorry” and “LUCY”, generating more traction and receiving criticism for his speculative approach.
A Solana memecoin creator who appears to be a teenager rug-pulled holders of the token on Tuesday night after it reached a market capitalization of $1 million. Elated at the $30,000 he had just pocketed, the developer made an obscene gesture at everyone watching his live stream and shouted, “Thanks for the 20 sides,” while jumping around the room.
But Crypto Twitter took it personally and quickly retaliated.
Over the next four hours, the token launched on Pump.fun called GenZ Quant (QUANT) skyrocketed to a peak market capitalization of $85 million. If the guy had kept his investment up to that point, his $30,000—not $20,000 according to the on-chain data, despite his comment—would have been worth more than $4 million. That’s a mistake in creating generational wealth if we’ve ever seen one.
It all started when a photo of the boy behind QUANT went viral on Monday. “I just made $2K before going to school,” said the Twitter post, from an account claiming to be the boy’s. “Secure your profits.”
Crypto Twitter apparently found this hilarious, with the initial post reaching over 3 million views, while other accounts reposted the image with their own captions. The degens marveled at the idea that a boy who looks like he was in his teens could make so much money in Cryptocurrency.
So when that same kid launched a token through Pump.fun just two days later, it quickly caught the attention of degens. Within 10 minutes of the launch, the developer promoted the project on a livestream as viewers and traders joined in to watch the spectacle.
“I think anyone who invested in QUANT and watched the livestream, myself included, really thought it could be a promising coin,” the trader known as Nocci, who purchased the token, told Decrypt. “After all, it’s not every day you see a 12-year-old kid who won $2,000 by launching his own token. The excitement was strong.”
But when the token reached a market capitalization of $1 million, the boy quickly sold, resulting in a 54% drop in the token’s price in a matter of seconds. This has been defined as a rug pull by the on-chain data visualization company, Bubblemaps.
He initially acted surprised that the token had fallen so sharply before quickly spinning around and rejoicing in his newfound fortune, jumping into the air, making an obscene gesture at his spectators and freaking out over the winnings.
This is an extension of the meta livestream that has given rise to some of the most viral meme coins of 2024. It all started when an alleged mother joined her son on camera in shaking her breasts, promising sexually suggestive acts if the coin It was going up, but they retreated before something crazy happened. This was surpassed by a Florida man who set himself on fire to power his meme coin, resulting in him being hospitalized with third-degree burns.
(embedded-post id=229260 /)
Both tokens disappeared shortly after the events, but QUANT was different. This time, the situation was so funny and viral that degens started buying it.
“Initially I wasn’t (reverse), but after the steam ended, I bought some,” the meme coin trader known as Beezy told Decrypt, “just because of how fun it all was and I saw how much traction my tweet was getting (about that).”
As investors began to arrive, posts about the situation became increasingly viral, prompting popular Twitch streamer xQc to react to it with a total of 181,000 viewers. This led the recently dumped cryptocurrency to touch a market capitalization of $85 million.
“It was almost like a revenge pump where people came together, driven by the desire to do something about the situation,” Nocci explained. “They started buying, creating a stir and spreading the word to show that the community could turn things around after being scammed by the boy.”
While the developer may be upset about potentially losing $1.5 million, those who invested in the project believe the token would not have risen as much without the boy’s antics.
“His dump was crucial, it created the narrative,” Beezy said. “Cryptocurrency surely got its revenge.”
The revenge of most was for the child to miss out on generational wealth, but others went much further. Disgruntled traders found the boy’s true identity, leaked his address and school, and filled his mother’s apparent Instagram with hateful comments.
Decrypt contacted the alleged mother and two Twitter accounts apparently linked to the event, but did not receive an immediate response.
After the rug, the guy created another token called I’m Sorry (SORRY), which reached a market cap of $4.5 million after selling at the $400,000 level for just over $13,000. Then, another token based on his dog (LUCY) reached a market cap of $3.8 million, after splitting its supply, selling around $20,300 when the token had a market cap of around $700,000.
“The boy didn’t do anything wrong. He never promised a long-term roadmap or the future of finance. It’s a meme cryptocurrency. This is all incredibly speculative,” anonymous SaaS trader Wiz—who purchased the token with a market cap of $20,000—told Decrypt. “This is great for cryptocurrencies. It’s going to bring in so many new people for the bull run.”
Edited by Andrew Hayward
Daily Debrief Newsletter
Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
Crypto Keynote USA
For the Latest Crypto News, Follow ©KeynoteUSA on Twitter Or Google News.
