Solana Meme Slerf Notches $1.7B in Volume After Developer Loses All Presale Funds

• Slerf, a sloth-themed meme coin on the Solana network, raised $10 million in a so-called presale and quickly gained popularity even though the developer mistakenly burned the liquidity provider and tokens.
• The launch of SLERF comes as developers are raising millions of dollars in presales, contributing to a surge in the price Solana's SOL token, which crossed the $200 mark for the first time since November 2021.

One of the newest tokens emerging from the Solana meme coin presale narrative has chalked up multiple exchange listings, a $1.7 billion trading volume and thousands of unique holders in a few hours after going live – despite a major fumble.

Slerf, a sloth-themed meme coin on the Solana network, raised $10 million in a presale on Monday. The token is among several that have emerged as presales – or fundraising sales before the official introduction – in the past few days following the success of Book of Meme (BOME) earlier this month.

However, the developer behind the project ended up losing all received funds after accidentally sending the tokens to a burn address, or one that is not controlled by anyone.

"I burned the LP and the tokens that were set aside for the airdrop,” @slerfsol wrote on X. “Mint authority is already revoked so I can not mint them. There is nothing I can do to fix this. I am so f—ing sorry."

“This is not a joke I really f****d up and im really sorry. Was a simple mindless misclick when I was in the process of burning the the lp,” they later added. An LP is a liquidity provider.

Guys I fucked up. I burned the LP and the tokens that were set aside for the airdrop.

Mint authority is already revoked so I can not mint them.

There is nothing I can do to fix this.

I am so fucking sorry.

— Slerf (@Slerfsol) March 18, 2024

Some called the move a marketing trick, as news of the burn went viral on X.

That did nothing to stop a frenzied market from purchasing and trading the tokens. SLERF was eventually floated on Solana-based exchanges including Jupiter and Orca and the price surged to as high as $1.4 within a few hours from an initial value near 3 cents.

So far, SLERF has chalked up $1.8 billion in trading volumes and 500,000 individual trades from 106,000 traders, Birdeye data shows.

Traders made millions of dollars by betting on the newly launched tokens, on-chain analysis tool Lookonchain posted. One trader made just over $3 million in a little over 12 minutes from an initial amount of $1.9 million, the firm noted.

SLERF’s launch came on the back of an ongoing narrative that has seen developers raising millions of dollars, usually in SOL tokens, on the promise of a meme coin airdrop. Some on-chain watchers estimate that over $100 million worth of tokens were sent to such presales over the weekend. The frenzy contributed toward the SOL price crossing $200 for the first time since November 2021.