- A Solana memecoin trader held more than $5 million in BODEN in early April.
- But they didn’t cash out until Monday, after the token’s value had plummeted more than 90%.
- It’s a vivid example of Solana’s volatile memecoin market.
A crypto trader gave up on BODEN, the Solana-based Joe Biden-themed memecoin, after a rollercoaster ride that saw their holdings jump to more than $5 million from almost $227,000 — before crashing again.
The trader, whose identity isn’t known, sold 5.7 million BODEN tokens on Monday for a little more than $139,000, a 39% loss relative to their value when they were acquired, according to blockchain data reviewed by DL News.
But it’s a 97% loss compared with what the trader could have sold the tokens for on April 10, just a month after BODEN’s launch. That day, BODEN hit an all-time high and was briefly trading at around $0.95.
Perhaps most frustrating for the trader: BODEN has surged more than 100% since, as Biden, who’s seeking a second term as US president, digs in despite poor poll numbers and a catastrophic debate performance on June 27 that led to calls for him to drop out of the race.
“I am firmly committed to staying in this race, to running this race to the end, and to beating Donald Trump,” Biden wrote in a letter to congressional Democrats Monday morning.
Memecoin volatility
It’s a vivid example of the volatility of memecoin markets, which have boomed on the Solana blockchain this year.
Memecoins are tokens inspired by internet memes and pop culture. Unlike some tokens, which function somewhat similar to shares in a publicly traded company, memecoins have no inherent value and trade entirely on hype.
Earlier this year, a flood of memecoins hit the market, many of them offensive and many featuring comical misspellings of politician and celebrity names.
In addition to Jeo Boden, which uses the BODEN ticker, there was “Doland Tremp” (Donald Trump), “Taylur” (one of several Taylor Swift-themed tokens), and Coinye West (Kanye West).
While memecoins are derided for being purely speculative — and, in many cases, outright scams — they hold sway among many crypto-savvy retail investors who believe the tokens are free from the influence of venture capital and the institutional investors that dominate other markets.
“Memecoins seem to be one of the last remaining opportunities in crypto for a normal person to go from zero to respectable [net worth] in a short period of time,” Jordan Fish, a crypto influencer better known as Cobie, wrote on X earlier this year.
Others aren’t so sure.
“It’s all super low-key exploitative and most brutal for the folks who ride in on the exuberance,” Taylor Monahan, a MetaMask security researcher, told DL News in April.
“They think they’re winning big, and then get absolutely destroyed. They’re the silent majority.”
BODEN traders
Take firetruck.sol, the BODEN trader who missed their opportunity at a $5 million fortune. (Firetruck.sol is the Solana-based domain name linked to the trader’s crypto wallet.)
On March 6, right after BODEN’s launch, they acquired 1.6 million tokens in three separate transactions within a span of 10 minutes. Those tokens were worth about $64,000 at the time.
Five hours later, they bought another 3.3 million tokens, worth about $132,000.
On March 11, they made their final major purchase, acquiring another 761,000 tokens, worth about $30,000.
BODEN tokens were worth about $0.04 at the time. By the end of the month, they would hit $0.34, and firetruck.sol’s holdings topped $1.9 million.
On April 4, BODEN doubled, hitting $0.70. On April 10, it would hit its all-time high, briefly trading just below $1 per token.
Had firetruck.sol cashed out, they would have pocketed $5.4 million.
But they didn’t, and the token has declined steadily since. On May 1, it was trading at $0.43. On June 1, it was trading at $0.27. On July 1, $0.07. On Monday, they sold their BODEN at a price of less than $0.03 per token.
They’re now sitting on more than $4 million in crypto, most of it in stablecoins USDC and USDT.
But their memecoin holdings are still extensive: As of Tuesday, they were sitting on 69 “Gabin Noosom” tokens, named after Gavin Newsom, the California governor and rumoured 2028 presidential candidate; 69 “olen mosk” tokens, named after Tesla founder and X owner Elon Musk; and 10 “Jill Boden” tokens, named after the president’s wife, Jill Biden.
Their combined value? Almost $0.08.
Aleks Gilbert is DL News’ New York-based DeFi correspondent. Have a tip? You can reach him at aleks@dlnews.com.
