Original author: Frank, PANews
In just 3 days, 11 tokens were issued, with a win rate of 100% and profits of $25,000. This might be the ideal self-image of countless MEME players. But the reality is that this is just one of the countless addresses belonging to an industrialized RUG team. While retail investors are still chasing the "thousandfold myth," professional teams have transformed the MEME track into a 24-hour harvesting machine using bots, multi-signature contracts, and public opinion engines. On-chain data shows that such industrialized RUG operations are not isolated cases.
From tracing the source of funds to the initial address on the exchange, to the hundreds of associated wallets derived from it, a "dark game" conspired by technology, capital, and human greed is devouring the wallets of speculators.
Single Address, 3 Days, $25,000, Hundreds of Addresses Forming a RUG Assembly Line
PANews dissects the complete harvesting chain using on-chain data and attempts to reveal a harsh reality: when the issuance of MEME coins devolves into a mathematical probability game, and when "community consensus" is mass-fabricated by industrialized armies, the end of this carnival may have long been predetermined.
Take this address as an example, FrRqEYFfJ3VEHodfiZdrPnM3vAHTm2u9ewBN6HR9RxZE (hereinafter referred to as "FrRqE"). In nearly 3 days, it issued 11 MEME tokens, with a total profit of $25,000 and a win rate of 100%.
How was this achieved? In terms of holding time, FrRqE buys in and sells out within just a few seconds, with the longest interval not exceeding 1 minute. First, FrRqE makes a large purchase of the token after the market opens, typically around 48 SOL, making it appear to other users that a big player is buying in, prompting them to quickly follow suit. At this point, FrRqE's holdings have already exceeded 70%. Then, within seconds, he sells all these tokens at once. The average return per transaction is about 20% to 30%, with each profit around $2,500.
Of course, due to the now well-developed monitoring tools, many experienced players will not blindly buy in when the developer's holding ratio is too high.
Therefore, after a large purchase, FrRqE quickly disperses these tokens to 400 wallet addresses to evade monitoring by on-chain bots. As more and more addresses buy in, and the amount in the Pump internal pool approaches saturation, FrRqE will repeat the trick, transferring all tokens back to the same address and then dumping them all at once, causing the token's value to plummet to zero.
Interestingly, the source of funds for this address seems to want to hide something deliberately. After hundreds of penetrations on-chain, PANews finally saw that the funds for this address initially came from the OKX exchange, with the initial receiving address being 3SrXcoKQ97xwFAwELnraHtpuycjGvmG82E9SBGs6UcQd.
In terms of operational time, this address has been engaging in such activities for over 2 months. Each time an address issues around 10 tokens, it transfers the funds to a new address to continue the next round of RUG, and the number of derived RUG addresses has already reached hundreds.
Of course, beyond these on-chain actions, the DEV behind the RUG has to do much more. For example, these tokens in the Pump internal pool usually have dozens or even hundreds of replies, and in the early stages, there are clear traces of large-scale bot purchases. The trading volume and discussion levels make users feel that this project resembles a normal MEME token.
What is even more chilling is that these tokens are not specifically filtered out by PANews but were discovered by randomly clicking on tokens on Pump.fun. For users who frequently participate in MEME investments, encountering similar RUG schemes should be common.
The operational process of such RUG schemes is not something ordinary users can achieve. First, it requires professional address distribution tools and aggregation addresses to facilitate flexible and unified token transfer operations. Second, it requires tools to monitor social media trends in real-time, ensuring that each token issuance aligns with the latest hot topics. Third, it requires a large number of Pump.fun bots and social media armies, such as the X account @r999d999z, created in January 2025, which has repeatedly promoted FrRqE's tokens, suggesting a deep connection between the two. Fourth, there are dedicated trading bots responsible for creating hype and sending packaged transactions. Achieving these steps likely requires a powerful technical and operational team.
A 0.01% Retention Rate: The MEME Forest Has No Place for Retail Investors
According to data from dexscreener, in the past six months, among the tokens issued on Pump.fun, there are currently 1,987 tokens with a market value still above $50,000, of which only 27 tokens have survived for over a month. There are 72 tokens that have lasted more than a day, while the remaining 1,915 were issued within the last 24 hours. Six tokens were issued yesterday. Based on this ratio, on February 13, a total of 49,153 tokens were issued on Pump.fun, with a graduation rate of 1.23%, resulting in 606 tokens graduating. The proportion of tokens that can maintain a market value above $50,000 within one day after graduation is only 0.9%. Overall, the probability of a token maintaining a market value of $50,000 one day after being issued on Pump.fun is about 0.01%.
Using the six tokens that survived after being issued on February 13 as a research sample, let's examine the characteristics of these retained tokens (during the observation process, this sample size dropped from six to four).
Looking at these four tokens, several characteristics can be summarized. First, the tokens are backed by project tokens or have clear spokespersons. Three of them are related to AI projects, and one is a personal token issued by an influencer. There are no ordinary players randomly issuing tokens among them.
Second, the LP lock-up ratios of these tokens are very high, generally above 95%, and the locked amounts are all over $100,000. Third, the number of followers on social media is over 2,000; although several accounts were created not long ago, their social media scores are still high due to interactions with KOLs.
In summary, the era of PVP seems to have passed; personal tokens issued in this market are almost unlikely to break out or achieve a high market value. Many players with issuance experience may have long been aware of this. In this context, those DEV teams that still choose to issue a large number of tokens daily clearly have their unique business strategies. This dark forest-style gameplay remains in an environment with no regulation.
Exhausting Resources, Many Players Are Painfully Exiting
The MEME coin track is transforming from a casino for everyone to a hunting ground for technology and major players against ordinary retail investors. Users may sometimes find it difficult to see through the tricks of RUG pullers, but as actual losses gradually expand, more and more users are painfully exiting this dark forest.
According to The Block, the trading volume of Pump.fun tokens on Solana has recently cooled, with an average daily trading volume of only $560 million over the past week, marking a new low since Christmas 2024, a significant drop of 82% compared to the single-day peak of $3.13 billion three weeks ago.
Data on the Solana chain also shows a similar trend. In the past three months, the number of active wallets on the Solana chain reached 7.22 million on November 16, but by February 1, that number had dropped to 3.18 million, a decline of over half. The previously popular aggregators like Meteora and Jupiter, which surged due to the TRUMP token, have also seen a rapid decline in active users after the hype cooled.
Even many KOLs whose main business is MEME have claimed that the current environment is no longer suitable for "rushing to the moon." A blogger named Laughing stated, "I have completely given up on betting on the opening PVP of memes; those who buy lottery tickets will never outplay those who sell them."
Paradigm researcher Arjun Balaji pointedly noted, "Memecoins used to be fun and pure, but industrialized trenches have turned a harmless PvP game into a predatory game dominated by internal advantages."
Although the market is becoming increasingly harsh, we may still gain some insights from the duality of blockchain. On one hand, the lack of regulation in blockchain has led to the rampant behavior of malicious DEVs. On the other hand, it is precisely because of the traceability of blockchain that, no matter how opponents try to hide, we can always find some clues on-chain. For players who are dedicated to research, once they are familiar with these malicious tactics, they can avoid similar scams.
Moreover, although the retention rate of tokens on Pump.fun has dropped to 0.01%, players might also choose to avoid the initial needle-in-a-haystack approach and instead let the bullets fly for a while, focusing on tokens that have been issued for more than a day and are still "alive." Time seems to be the most practical screening tool. For teams hoping to issue project tokens through MEME, in such a market environment, sincerity becomes a simple and effective narrative; bad tokens are destroying the market, while good tokens will strike back against the bad ones.
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