Scammers, big traders, product promoters... Recapping the 2024 personalities of Memecoins
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Scammers, big traders, product promoters... Recapping the 2024 personalities of Memecoins
Looking Back at 2024: The Eccentrics of the Meme Scene
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Arain, ChainCatcher
In 2024, the Memecoin sector surged unexpectedly, growing through a supercycle amid mixed reviews and leaving many old-money investors stunned.
Within the battlefield of Memecoin trading emerged genius scammers setting clever "wealth traps," master traders making precise moves to profit from market swings, influencers driving traffic to tokens, and pump-callers manipulating market trends... These key figures took center stage, collectively creating a grand carnival of Memecoins.
Alon
If not for the meme-launching platform Pump.fun, this Meme-fueled feast might have been only half as spectacular. In that sense, Alon is a pivotal figure behind the 2024 Memecoin craze.
Alon founded and launched Pump.fun in January 2024, providing users on the Solana blockchain with a venue to create and trade cryptocurrencies—enabling anyone to mint a Solana token within a minute at no cost.
As of December 26, 2024, the platform had spawned over 5 million Memecoins, including notable ones such as Billy, Michi, and Shark Cat. It also laid the foundation for mass-producing celebrity-backed Memecoins, like Lggy Azalea’s $MOTHER, Andrew Tate’s $DADDY, and Jason Derulo’s $JASON.
While the mass production of Memecoins risks oversaturating the market, it's undeniable that Pump.fun provided a crucial platform for innovation and growth, profoundly shaping the entire Memecoin ecosystem.
Murad
One of the top Memecoin KOLs in 2024, widely known as the “Meme Theologian.”
Murad rose to prominence primarily through two achievements: his successful investment in $SPX and the development of the Memecoin Supercycle theory.
The Memecoin Supercycle theory posits that Memecoins are absorbing attributes and speculative premiums from value coins, entering a “Meme Super Cycle.” Murad argues that Memecoins will not only surpass traditional cryptocurrencies but also reshape investor behavior and market trends, evolving from internet jokes into legitimate investment assets with passionate followings.
When Murad first acquired $SPX, its market cap was just $10 million; today, it exceeds $700 million, generating floating profits of up to $8.3 million. While holding the token, he actively promoted his investment thesis on Twitter. His holdings and calls influenced price movements and attracted widespread attention and followership. Besides $SPX, Murad holds giga, pepe, sigma, apu, and popcat, favoring mid-to-high-cap Memecoins with strong “cult-like” community appeal.
According to Murad, his main strategy is based on the “Price and Faith Index,” which suggests investors should seek projects with high community faith but low prices—undervalued Memecoins meeting most criteria except one or two easily improvable metrics, supported by highly enthusiastic communities.
After appearing and speaking at Token2049, Murad’s status in the Memecoin space reached new heights. With his systematic investment framework, even some VCs began studying Memecoins more seriously.
Ansem
Another top-tier Memecoin KOL in 2024, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Murad.
Compared to Murad, Ansem leans more heavily toward trading and emphasizes technical analysis over fundamental analysis. He gained market attention mainly through early investments in BONK and WIF.
On October 30, 2023, Ansem posted an X (formerly Twitter) message saying “bonk great coin,” marking his first public recommendation of BONK when its price was merely $0.0000005618. BONK then surged, reaching over $0.000045 by March 2024—an increase of more than 80x.
As for WIF, it could be said that Ansem single-handedly pumped it to a $300 million market cap. On December 12, 2023, he stated on social media that only WIF had the potential of SHIB, and on December 16, he tweeted “WIF = SHIB.” Within four months, WIF’s price skyrocketed from $0.09 to an all-time high of $4.85—a gain exceeding 520x.
However, due to frequent promotions of small-cap Memecoins that led to follower losses, Ansem has faced backlash. Other KOLs have accused him of openly “harvesting韭菜 (cutting lambs).” In response, Ansem insists he merely selects what he believes are the best trades, cannot guarantee success every time, but ultimately helps more people than he harms. Yet analysts reviewing his past recommendations found that most coins would generate negative returns if bought immediately after his posts.
Sahil Arora
This Indian fraudster briefly shocked the market when multiple celebrities publicly denounced him, revealing massive investor losses.
Sahil Arora is a serial entrepreneur who launched several crypto projects between 2020 and 2023. Though these ventures ultimately failed, they were profitable for him.
In 2024, Sahil saw opportunity in the Memecoin boom. Leveraging his influence and verified status on Instagram, he contacted numerous celebrities to collaborate on launching tokens. He typically retained 25%–40% of the token supply and rapidly dumped them after the celebrities promoted the coins, using their fans’ investments as his exit liquidity.
Examples include:
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Paying Jason Derulo $200,000 to tweet about a token;
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Signing a contract with Caitlyn Jenner to launch the $JENNER token, agreeing to pay her $50,000 upfront plus 80% of revenue—but the deal turned into a fiasco, with Jenner accusing him of breach of contract and publicly calling him out for defrauding her and owing her “a huge sum of money”;
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Issuing tokens for celebrities like Rich the Kid and Lil Pump, who later complained of similar experiences;
Data firm Bubbleworks estimates that Sahil earned approximately $30 million in 2024 by brokering celebrity Memecoin launches.
Lggy Azalea
Australian rapper Iggy Azalea stands out as a leading figure in the 2024 celebrity Memecoin trend. Interestingly, Sahil Arora once tried to exploit her fame by proposing to help launch a Memecoin $LGG, but the attempt fizzled.
Iggy decided to take matters into her own hands. After discovering someone impersonating her on Telegram to launch a fake token, she officially launched $MOTHER on Pump.fun on May 28, 2024. She dedicated her X account—boasting 7.6 million followers—to promoting $MOTHER, deleting all pre-May 29 posts and publishing 2,245 tweets about the token. She added the $MOTHER Telegram channel link to her Instagram bio and paused her OnlyFans to redirect fans to the Telegram group. Within a week of launch, $MOTHER’s price surged 1,200%.
She later joined various community Spaces, interacted with members via voice messages, and appeared on the ThreadGuy podcast to share her views on crypto and Web3.
As Memecoins grew hotter, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin criticized the celebrity Memecoin frenzy, arguing these tokens existed solely to enrich celebrities and early adopters without real utility. Iggy fired back at “V God,” posting a satirical meme image of herself cradling baby Vitalik, captioned “he’s mad and hungry again.” This triggered a 150% surge in $MOTHER and sparked a wave of “family-themed” tokens like $DADDY and $SON.
But Iggy didn’t stop at trolling—after clashing with Vitalik, she launched an online store selling T-shirts redeemable only with $MOTHER, and announced plans to allow purchases of phones and monthly phone plans using either $MOTHER or SOL, aiming to anchor $MOTHER’s value beyond speculation.
Caitlyn Jenner
Like Iggy Azalea, American reality TV star and former athlete Caitlyn Jenner leveraged her media presence to draw attention to Memecoins. However, unlike Iggy, her token launch failed—and ultimately led to lawsuits from investors.
In May 2024, Caitlyn Jenner launched $JENNER on Pump.fun, tweeting a photo of herself shaking hands with Trump along with the $JENNER link, tagging several prominent crypto KOLs as “crypto kings.” Her manager Sophia also shared Stories about the token.
Since Caitlyn had no prior involvement in crypto, many fans suspected her account was hacked. She denied this and posted a video confirming the launch was legitimate and backed by her team.
During periods of price volatility fueled by skepticism, her Twitter account hosted a Space session where Sophia attempted to clarify concerns. However, Sophia mentioned the team might launch another token, triggering a sell-off. Despite Caitlyn later stating they’d focus solely on $JENNER, confidence was already lost.
According to Lookonchain data, Caitlyn Jenner earned 2,381 SOL (about $405,000) in four days during May 2024 by launching 12 different MEMEcoins on Solana.
On November 13, 2024, Naeem Azad and Mihai Caluseru filed a class-action lawsuit in California federal court, accusing Caitlyn Jenner and her manager Sophia Hutchins of fraudulently promoting unregistered securities, causing significant financial harm to investors.
Was it worth burning fan trust and inviting legal trouble for $400,000? That remains a question for Caitlyn Jenner.
James Wynn
The year’s breakout pump-caller, James Wynn made headlines for raking in $25 million betting on PEPE—only to fall from grace due to questionable conduct.
James Wynn bought PEPE within a day of its launch and aggressively promoted it on Twitter. On April 16, 2023 alone, he posted at least 24 promotional tweets about PEPE, significantly boosting its visibility and attracting broader investor and Meme community interest.
By May 1, PEPE’s price had risen 100x from his entry point. Analysts noticed Wynn transferring his PEPE holdings across multiple new addresses, gradually consolidating assets into his main wallet jwynn.eth before sending funds to exchanges. Media reports estimate Wynn profited around $25 million from the PEPE rally, starting with a mere $7,644 investment.
He then shifted focus to the ELON token. On April 24, 2024, he tweeted, “I think I’ve got a 1000x for you guys, who wants it?”—just one hour after quietly establishing positions in ELON across two accounts. After revealing the token, ELON’s price surged nearly 100x in a short period.
On April 27, ELON’s price suddenly crashed 70%. James Wynn announced he had exited his position, claiming the project had issues. In reality, he had already liquidated entirely via a rarely used address on April 25. His dump directly caused the collapse. Data shows both of his accounts ranked among the top ten most profitable wallets during the event, netting roughly $350,000 combined.
His abrupt exit devastated holders and severely damaged his reputation, drawing widespread accusations of “harvesting韭菜.”
Justin Sun
No list of major players would be complete without Brother Sun.
In August 2024, TRON launched the beta version of SunPump, touted as the first fair-launch Memecoin platform in the TRON ecosystem. Although TRON claims SunPump isn’t directly Justin Sun’s project, the public inevitably associates Sun with the platform.
After SunPump’s release, Justin Sun spared no effort promoting it, predicting that TRON would soon host a Memecoin surpassing $1 billion in market cap and emphasizing TRON’s deep integration with Meme culture.
Beyond SunPump, Sun expanded his footprint in the Memecoin space—for example, investing $10 million in SHIB Ultra, a fork of Shiba Inu, becoming the project’s largest backer.
Sun’s most viral moment in 2024 was the “expensive banana” incident. He purchased Maurizio Cattelan’s conceptual artwork *Comedian*—a banana taped to a wall—for $6.24 million and livestreamed himself eating it, paying homage to Meme culture. The stunt sparked global discussion on the nature of memes, successfully merging art with Meme culture and expanding its reach.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk remains a heavyweight in the cryptocurrency world. Though not intentionally advancing the Memecoin narrative, his influence is indelibly etched into its history. Musk views memes as modern art capable of efficiently conveying information and emotion. He once declared, “Whoever controls the memes, controls the universe,” reflecting his deep understanding of Meme culture.
Musk’s most famous Memecoin connection is Dogecoin (DOGE). Starting in 2020, he frequently tweeted about DOGE, using slogans like “dogetothemoon,” catapulting the once-niche cryptocurrency into the global spotlight. In early 2021, Tesla CEO’s simple tweet “doge” accompanied by a rocket emoji sent DOGE soaring past the $1 milestone. Musk once planned for Tesla to accept DOGE payments, though the initiative was later paused. In April 2023, changing X’s logo to a Shiba Inu caused DOGE to surge 30% in a single day. In 2024, Musk paid tribute on X to Kabosu, the original dog behind the Doge meme, sparking another bullish trend.
Beyond Dogecoin, Musk has unintentionally boosted other Memecoins (note: distinct from active promotion):
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In December 2023, Musk announced the launch of his AI model GROK, prompting immediate creation of a namesake Memecoin that surged fivefold in two days (though later exposed as created by a known scammer and eventually crashed);
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On January 9, 2024, Musk changed his Twitter bio to “(CTO) chief Troll Officer,” causing the $TROLL token to spike;
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On January 16, 2024, Musk shared a meme containing the word “Meme” and smiley faces, triggering a surge in the previously deployed Ethereum token $SMILEY, which jumped 895% in one day;
Musk’s actions are closely watched by the crypto community, often inspiring a flood of new Memecoins themed around him. For instance, after Musk criticized OpenAI, the “ClosedAI” token surged over 2,800% within three hours.
Recently, Musk changed his X profile picture to a Pepe-the-frog-style Meme character and renamed himself “Kekius Maximus.” PEPE responded with a sharp rise, and multiple “Kekius Maximus”-themed Memecoins briefly spiked.
Donald John Trump
The incoming U.S. president and former commander-in-chief, Donald John Trump, is often grouped with Musk as a source of unexpected Memecoin trading opportunities. So far, however, Trump has mostly been an unwitting participant.
In May 2024, during an NFT dinner event at Mar-a-Lago, a guest introduced Trump to the $BODEN Memecoin, then valued at $240 million. Trump replied, “I don’t like that investment.” Ironically, the coin rose 25% shortly afterward, peaking at $0.42.
On August 12, 2024, a trader reportedly spent 0.052 ETH (around $96 at the time) to buy 608,650 units of the Trump-related $TRUMP Memecoin. By June 2024, the token’s market cap had briefly soared to $788 million.
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