Decoding the Three Key Elements of Meme Launches: Development Teams, Snipers, and Whales
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Decoding the Three Key Elements of Meme Launches: Development Teams, Snipers, and Whales
To achieve long-term success, a good combination of these three elements is essential.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Ansem
Translation: TechFlow
Lately, everyone's been talking about memecoins, backroom dealings, and whales, so I decided to provide some background. Every token project launched directly on a decentralized exchange (DEX) without venture capital (VC) backing has three key components:
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The development team
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Snipers
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Whales (pending)
The complexity and overlap among these three vary from token to token, but a healthy combination of all three is essential for long-term success.
Development Team
Each development team exists along a sliding scale between decentralization and organization. On pump.fun, a team might consist of just one person and a headline. In contrast, teams like $BONK are highly organized, composed of some of the sharpest active crypto traders on Solana. Both types can perform well, but their success also depends on the other two factors—snipers and whales.
The advantage of organized teams is that they usually reserve budgets for marketing and future development, giving these tokens more "utility" than mere memes originating solely from pump.fun. A prime example is bonkbot—no other fully decentralized meme has such a product due to lack of funding. Another example is $MEW, which was able to airdrop significant tokens to all $BONK and $WIF holders. These teams also typically have easier access to market makers and faster exchange listings.
On the other hand, fully decentralized teams usually start with lower market caps due to the absence of deep initial capital. They often build fervent communities early through extremely low launch costs and widely distributed supply. Prime examples are $WIF and $MICHI, which launched with very low market caps but highly active communities. The risk with these coins is that, on average, they’re more likely to fail early because all snipers try to exit quickly, and there’s no whale or long-term-aligned team supporting the project.
Snipers
Honestly, I’m not the best person to dive deep into this topic since I don’t participate in early launch sniping—but I know people who do. For snipers, they usually don’t care about the project itself; they just want to get in first and exit immediately if sufficient liquidity allows. Many projects lacking well-organized teams fail because large amounts of tokens are bought up and dumped by snipers at launch, causing chaotic price charts.
A good example is an ETHWIF derivative launched a few months ago. Numerous wallets bought in at launch and sold hours later, making six-figure profits.
Ninety percent of newly issued tokens on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) never exceed a $5 million market cap, mainly because most of these development teams are anonymous and happy to cash out quickly. This is also why the term “CTO” (Community Takeover) is so common—development teams often sell their tokens immediately.
Whales
Every token that grows from zero to multi-billion dollar valuations eventually needs whales to push the price higher. With memes, community formation usually happens early. Once a meme reaches enough attention and viral momentum, its market cap will surpass $100 million. After it solidifies above $100 million, larger players begin positioning themselves, as there’s now enough liquidity to build substantial positions. At the same time, early participants must hold firm. Once they become whales, their commitment becomes crucial to the project’s long-term success.
Conclusion
In short, every token project has a team, varying in organizational structure. Every token also has snipers and whales. A strong combination of all these elements is necessary to reach billion-dollar market caps, whether they come from the same or different actors.
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