Forward the Original Title‘The Dark Forest of MEME Coins: Industrialized Harvesting Production Line Generates Millions Daily, Retail Investors Struggle to Strike Gold with a Retention Rate of One in Ten Thousand’

In just three days, a team issued 11 tokens, achieving a 100% success rate and making $25,000 in profit. For many MEME coin players, this might be their dream scenario. But the truth is, this is just one example among the many addresses used by an industrialized RUG team. While retail investors are still chasing the “thousand-fold gains,” professional teams have already turned the MEME market into a nonstop harvesting machine, leveraging robots, multi-signature contracts, and public opinion engines. On-chain data confirms that this type of industrialized RUG operation is not a rare occurrence.

By tracking the source of funds from exchange initial addresses to hundreds of associated wallets, we see that a “dark game” driven by technology, capital, and human greed is draining the wallets of speculators.

$25,000 in 3 Days from a Single Address, Hundreds of Addresses Forming a RUG Production Line

PANews uses on-chain data to dissect the full process of a token harvest and reveal a tough truth: when MEME coin issuance becomes a numbers game, and “community consensus” is mass-produced by hired armies, the end of this chaotic cycle may already be written.

Take the address FrRqEYFfJ3VEHodfiZdrPnM3vAHTm2u9ewBN6HR9RxZE (hereafter “FrRqE”) as an example. In just 3 days, this address issued 11 MEME tokens, earned $25,000 in profit, and achieved a 100% success rate.

So, how does this work? Looking at the timing, FrRqE buys and sells within seconds, with the longest delay being just under a minute. The process goes like this: After the market opens, FrRqE buys a significant amount of the token, usually around 48 SOL. This large purchase makes it seem like a big investor is involved, causing others to jump in and buy as well, which pushes FrRqE’s position to over 70%. Then, in under a minute, it sells all the tokens at once, earning an average return of 20%-30%, or about $2,500 per trade.

Of course, with the rise of monitoring tools, experienced traders won’t blindly follow when a developer holds too much of a position.

Therefore, after buying in, FrRqE quickly disperses these tokens across 400 wallet addresses to avoid being monitored by on-chain bots. As more addresses buy in and the Pump pool nears its capacity, FrRqE repeats the trick, transferring all the tokens back to one address and then dumping them all at once, causing the token price to drop to zero instantly.

Interestingly, the source of funds for this address seems deliberately hidden. After tracking the funds on-chain, PANews found that the money came from the OKX exchange, with the initial receiving address being 3SrXcoKQ97xwFAwELnraHtpuycjGvmG82E9SBGs6UcQd.

Looking at the timeline, this address has been engaged in this activity for over two months. Every time it issues about 10 tokens, the funds are transferred to a new address, and the cycle starts again. So far, this operation has generated hundreds of new RUG addresses.

Beyond on-chain actions, the developer behind the RUG operation needs to do even more, such as adding dozens or even hundreds of replies to pump tokens in Pump pools. In the early stages, there are clear signs of bot activity. The transaction volume and online discussions give the impression that the project is a legitimate MEME coin.

What’s more disturbing is that PANews didn’t specifically search for this token—it was discovered randomly by clicking on tokens on Pump.fun. For regular MEME investors, running into RUG scams like this is likely a common occurrence.

These RUG operations aren’t something that ordinary users can replicate. First, they require specialized address distribution tools to move tokens quickly and efficiently. Second, developers need real-time social media monitoring tools to ensure that every token release aligns with current hot trends. Third, they need a large number of bots and social media armies, such as the X account @r999d999z, created in January 2025, which has been linked to promoting FrRqE’s tokens. Lastly, dedicated trading bots are required to generate buzz and execute mass transactions. To manage all of this, a skilled technical and operational team is essential.

One in Ten Thousand Retention Rate: The MEME Coin Forest Has No Room for Retail Investors

According to data from dexscreener, in the past six months, there have been 1,987 tokens issued on Pump.fun that still have a market value above $50,000. However, only 27 of these tokens have lasted more than a month, and 72 have remained for over a day. The rest, 1,915 tokens, were issued within the past 24 hours, and six of them were issued just yesterday. Based on these figures, on February 13, 49,153 tokens were issued on Pump.fun, with a graduation rate of 1.23%, meaning 606 tokens survived. Of these, only 0.9% managed to maintain a market value above $50,000 within a day. Overall, the chances of a token keeping a value of $50,000 one day after issuance on Pump.fun is around one in ten thousand.

Let’s take the six tokens that survived after issuance on February 13 as a research sample and see what characteristics these surviving tokens have (during the observation, this data sample dropped from 6 to 4).

Looking at these four tokens, several characteristics can be summarized. First, these tokens are all backed by project tokens or have clear endorsements. Three are related to AI projects, and one is a personal token issued by an internet celebrity. There are no tokens issued randomly by ordinary players.

Second, the LP lock-up ratio of these tokens is very high, generally above 95%, and the locked-up amount is above $100,000. Third, the social media following for these tokens is all above 2,000, and although several of the accounts were created recently, their social media scores are still high due to KOL interactions.

Overall, the PVP (Player vs. Player) era seems to have passed, and personal tokens issued by individuals are almost impossible to gain traction or achieve high market value in this market. Many players with issuance experience may have already known this. Against this backdrop, DEV teams that still choose to issue large numbers of tokens daily obviously have their own unique business strategies. This dark forest-style gameplay still exists in an environment with no regulation.

A Growing Exodus of Retail Investors

The MEME coin space is evolving from a public casino where everyone tries to find the next big thing, into a hunting ground where professionals and large players are targeting ordinary retail investors. While users may struggle to see through the tactics of those behind RUG pulls, as losses continue to mount, more and more users are reluctantly exiting this dark forest.

According to The Block, trading volumes for Pump.fun tokens on Solana have recently dropped significantly. Over the past week, daily trading volumes have averaged just $560 million, the lowest level since Christmas 2024, marking an 82% decline from the peak of $3.13 billion three weeks ago.

Similar trends are also visible on the Solana blockchain. In the past three months, the number of active wallets on Solana peaked at 7.22 million on November 16, but by February 1, that number had plummeted to 3.18 million—a drop of over 50%. Popular aggregators like Meteora and Jupiter, which gained massive traction after the TRUMP token’s rise, have seen a sharp decline in active users as the hype around them cooled.

Even many KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) in the MEME coin space are now admitting that the current environment is no longer suited for “chasing moonshots.” A blogger named Laughing said, “I’ve completely given up on betting on meme coin PVPs. You can never outplay those selling the tickets.”

Arjun Balaji, a researcher at Paradigm, hit the nail on the head when he said: “Memecoins used to be fun and pure, but the industrialized trench warfare has turned what was once a harmless PvP game into a predatory game dominated by internal advantages.”

Despite the increasingly tough market, we can still take some lessons from blockchain’s dual nature. On one hand, the lack of regulation has allowed malicious developers to act with impunity. On the other hand, blockchain’s traceability means that no matter how much opponents try to cover their tracks, we can always find clues from on-chain data. For players who study these malicious tactics, once they understand how these scams work, they can avoid falling into similar traps.

Additionally, although the retention rate for tokens on Pump.fun has dropped to one in ten thousand, players might be better off avoiding “needle-in-a-haystack” searches early on. Instead, they could wait a bit and focus on tokens that have survived for more than a day. Time has become a crucial filtering tool. For teams looking to launch MEME token projects, sincerity has become a simple yet effective narrative in this market. Bad tokens are undermining the market, but good tokens will ultimately rise to the top.

Disclaimer：

1. This article is reprinted from [Panewslab], with the original title “The Dark Forest of MEME Coins: Industrialized Harvesting Production Line Generates Millions Daily, Retail Investors Struggle to Strike Gold with a Retention Rate of One in Ten Thousand.” Copyright belongs to the original author [Frank]. If you have any objections to this reprint, please contact the Gate Learn team and the team will handle it promptly according to relevant procedures.
2. Liability Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not constitute any investment advice.
3. Other language versions of this article are translated by the Gate Learn team. Copying, distributing, or plagiarizing the translated article is prohibited unless mentioned explicitly by Gate.io.