Neiro memecoin developer makes $2.85M profit after apparent rug pull

The developer of the Solana-based Neiro memecoin has made a $2.85 million profit in an apparent rug pull.

The developer wallet made the $2.85 million profit after printing an over 5,169-fold return on his initial investment of just three Solana (SOL) tokens worth over $550.

The developer initially invested in the Solana-based memecoin when deploying the token contract, according to a July 28 X post by Lookonchain:

“He sold 68M $Neiro for 15,511 $SOL($2.85M) through multiple wallets, with a realized profit of 15,508 $SOL($2.85M). He also sent 10M $Neiro to the dead wallet, leaving 19.5M $Neiro($1.8M), with an unrealized profit of $1.8M!”

The developer wallet selling its holdings could be a sign of a potential rug pull, crypto slang for an exit scam that involves insiders quietly selling a large part of their token allocation and exiting the project.

Memecoin season could be just around the corner

Meanwhile the wider memecoin sector could be on track to witness the next phase of the bull cycle, according to popular memecoin trader Zack Ventura.

The trader wrote in a July 22 X post:

“This index is the top memecoins against Bitcoin, tracing back from December 2023. Next leg up memecoin season is loading.”

While memecoins aren’t always moving holistically as an asset class, some tokens are still soaring to new all-time highs.

Solana-based memecoin Dogwifhat (WIF) hit a new monthly high on July 18, after an over 41% weekly rally brought it back in the top 50 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.

Are memecoins hurting the legitimacy of the crypto industry?

The current cycle saw the debut of numerous celebrity-launched memecoins. While some see these as a sign of mainstream adoption, the notoriously poor price performance of these celebrity tokens is damaging the industry’s reputation.

Within the first week of their launch, the majority of celebrity-backed memecoins fell at least 66%, including the JENNER, DAVIDO and RICH meme tokens.

American singer Jason Derulo’s token was also hit with controversy at the end of June when analytics firm Bubblemaps claimed that the singer sold thousands of dollars worth of his JASON token despite claims that he “WILL NEVER SELL.”

The Daddy Tate (DADDY) memecoin, launched by controversial former kickboxing champion Andrew Tate, was also hit by insider trading allegations by Bubblemaps, June 12 X post:

“Insiders bought 30% of the supply at launch before Andrew Tate started to promote it on X.”