This Memecoin Trader Lost Over $1M in an Hour

Investing in memecoins has recently become one of the simplest ways for cryptocurrency investors and traders to multiply a few thousand into millions. However, recent data reveal that not everyone has been successful in this endeavour.  

An example is a trader who lost over $1 million investing in a dubious memecoin called $MBAPPE.

What Happened

Per data from analytics firm Lookonchain, an unfortunate trader created a new wallet and invested 7,156 $SOL, worth $1.03 million, into the $MBAPPE token in a single transaction.

Someone created a new wallet and spent 7,156 $SOL($1.03M) to buy a #MEMEcoin named $MBAPPE in a single transaction, which is now only worth $9.2K.

This person lost more than $1M in just 1 hour!😱https://t.co/IKsUN14km1 pic.twitter.com/kTF6SQCKT4

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) August 29, 2024

However, the coin’s value plummeted, causing the trader’s investment value to drop to a mere $9.2K. This means that he has lost more than $1 million in just an hour. 

The incident happened after hackers reportedly took control of French footballer Kylian Mbappe’s X account on Thursday. They used the account to post multiple promotions for the token, $MBAPPE. The token was created using the  Solana-based memecoin deployer, Pump. fun, a platform for creating and launching memecoins easily and quickly.

Minutes after the promotional tweet, several X users observed that the $MBAPPE token quickly spiked and then plummeted within minutes. This suspicious act led to people seeing through the hack and raising alarms concerning the matter. Meanwhile, the posts have since been deleted.

In a different outcome, a trader profited from this memecoin. He invested 2 SOL worth about $286, into the token and then sold it at its peak, securing a profit of around 1,398 SOL which is about $200,000. 

Profitable But Not Always

The experience of the trader who lost over a million underscores the extreme volatility and inherent risks associated with investing in memecoins especially when associated with celebrities. 

While there have been several reports of traders making life-changing funds from trading memecoins early enough, several investors have suffered significant losses. 

Therefore, conducting thorough research and the frequently cited investment principle of putting in only what one can afford to lose can protect trades and investors from losing significant capital to memecoin speculation.