Solana (SOL) ecosystem has been rocked by a series of issues including a significant market crash and a major memecoin presale scam. Crypto detective ZachXBT has uncovered numerous scams involving presale events of Solana-based memecoins, revealing fraudulent activities and investor losses. ZachXBT’s findings shared on Twitter show that 33 projects collected 796,000 SOL worth $149.2 million in presales.
Warnings Issued Following Presale Activities
The fraud includes various fake accounts, including one alleged to be Sartoshi0x, which pocketed a significant portion of SOL from presales without distributing the promised tokens to participants. Other examples include fake accounts associated with prominent names in the crypto world, such as Jared_eth and Blue Kirby, which have led to significant losses for investors.
This fraud has shaken investors’ confidence in the Solana network, particularly in new memecoins, leading to a cautious outlook. In the wake of growing concerns, Solana’s co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko has warned against investing in such projects.
Amidst the turmoil in the Solana ecosystem, major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) have suffered significant losses in value. Some market observers attribute this decline to the chaos within the Solana ecosystem. BTC has fallen below $62,000, while ETH has dropped to $3,100, with the general market expectation pointing towards a continued downtrend.
SOL and Solana-Based Memecoins Under Selling Pressure
SOL continues to face pressure despite recovering from low levels, trading at $171.31 with a 7.50% decrease over the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, the total value locked (TVL) on the Solana network has also plummeted sharply. The TVL, which had risen above $4.5 billion at the beginning of the week, is now at $3.86 billion.
Altcoins based on Solana, including Jupiter (JUP), Raydium, Orca (ORCA), and Slerf (SLERF), have also experienced significant price drops amidst the chaos. The Slerf project, in particular, became a target of fraud allegations after the developer accidentally burned presale and AirDrop tokens, resulting in significant losses for many investors.
Recent spikes in some Solana-based memecoins, such as Bonk (BONK) and Book of Meme (BOME), have increased suspicions of insider trading and pump-and-dump schemes. Notably, Binance had to initiate an internal investigation into the listing of BOME due to allegations raised in the crypto community.