Original | Odaily Planet Daily

Author | Golem

On February 2 at 12:18, a meme project named PAIN launched a 48-hour presale fundraising campaign on the X platform, where users will receive PAIN tokens based on the proportion of SOL they contribute to the total raised SOL after the presale ends.

According to official disclosures, as of February 4 at 12:18 (block height 318346069), PAIN has raised a total of 185,976 SOL, approximately 37 million USD, which is three times the amount raised by the popular presale meme project SLERF in 2024. Interestingly, although PAIN allowed ample time for players to react, there was surprisingly little promotion or mention in the Chinese-speaking community during the presale.

Currently, PAIN has not distributed tokens, and if it truly is a "golden opportunity," there may still be a chance to get in early. Odaily Planet Daily has compiled the meme history of PAIN and related clues for readers to analyze and judge for themselves.

14 Years of Internet Memes

The meme image of PAIN is an elderly man with a "awkward yet polite smile." His various meme expressions have actually been popular on the traditional internet for 14 years.

The elderly man in the meme is named András István Arató, a retired electrical engineer and model from Hungary. In 2011, Arató posted travel photos taken during his vacation on social media. Due to his overall facial expression and seemingly fake smile having a certain natural "magic," a professional photographer invited him to model, resulting in over a hundred photos being taken. These photos quickly became popular on the internet and were humorously dubbed "Hide the Pain Harold."

Arató might have lived a quiet life, but as fate would have it, in his old age (he was 66 in 2011 and is now 80), he suddenly found himself in the spotlight. With the meme's popularity, he became the spokesperson for Coca-Cola Hungary in 2019; he also ventured into the film industry, participating in the Hungarian version of The Masked Singer in 2020; and in January 2025, Arató hosted the Hungarian Athlete of the Year gala.

Entering the Crypto Space with Great Momentum

According to publicly available information, Arató has a personal Facebook account, which has not yet posted or mentioned anything about PAIN.

However, there is a Twitter account using the "Hide the Pain Harold" IP, which posted its first tweet featuring a photo of Arató with CZ and He Yi at the Dubai Blockchain Week held by Binance in 2024. While it is unclear whether this account has Arató's authorization, it at least proves that he has been active in the crypto space, and these celebrities may have indirectly endorsed PAIN.

Even earlier, Arató had connections with the meme platform Memeland. In August 2019, he was invited to an event hosted by 9GAG, the parent company behind Memeland, in Hong Kong. When the official presale account for PAIN posted about the presale, Memeland's official Twitter also retweeted it, providing greater traffic and exposure. Therefore, some community members speculate that this PAIN presale was incubated by Memeland.

Overfunding Refund of 80%, Suspected Involvement of Well-Known Market Makers

Despite the significant influence of the "Hide the Pain Harold" meme IP on the internet and the support from crypto celebrities and teams, the total fundraising amount of 37 million USD still poses immense pressure on the price increase potential in the secondary market after the token is released.

On February 5, the official PAIN Twitter announced that at launch, 80% of the raised funds would be refunded, using only the remaining 20% to support the launch, provide liquidity, and pay for CEX listing fees (if any). However, this excludes SOL sent by bots and from various CEXs.

This news reignited interest in PAIN within the community, making it one of the largest fundraising meme projects in history and setting a record for refund amounts. Through the refunds, PAIN's valuation has dropped to around 7.4 million USD, leaving enough room for performance in the secondary market, while the 80% refund funds are likely to create buying pressure for the tokens after launch, giving presale participants a chance to achieve returns of over three times. From both a traffic effect and potential outcome perspective, this is a qualified marketing strategy.

Additionally, some attentive community players have analyzed on-chain funding addresses and seemingly discovered the presence of market makers. One address, after receiving funds from the market maker Wintermute and its associated wallets, made four transactions to the PAIN fundraising address, contributing 1,700 SOL.

Wintermute has been quite active in meme coin market making this cycle, participating in meme coins such as SLERF, MOODENG, and ACT, and its market-making strategy is often summarized as "early unlimited price increases followed by declines and consolidation." Regardless of the style, the involvement of market makers is still a positive sign for a newly launched PAIN.

Furthermore, according to on-chain data analyst @ai_9684xtpa, the distribution of tokens after proportional allocation is as follows:

• TOP5: Contributed 32,747 SOL, holding a total of 17.6%;
• TOP10: Contributed 43,242 SOL, holding a total of 23.2%;
• TOP20: Contributed 59,299 SOL, holding a total of 31.87%.

Generally, a healthy meme coin has less than 30% of the top 10 holdings, but if there are no team allocations, it could create significant selling pressure after the token goes live. Based on the previous analysis, the release of PAIN appears to be a well-planned initiative involving multiple parties, rather than a purely community-driven project. The project's decision to refund 80% of the funds has garnered goodwill from presale participants, but whether it will face "selling pressure" after launch remains uncertain.

NO PAIN, NO GAIN.

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