NFT artist raises over $10 million in one day for Solana memecoin presale

Web3 • March 16, 2024, 1:09PM EDT

Published 1 minute earlier on

Quick Take

NFT artist Kero decided to create a Solana meme coin after posting a poll on X.
Within a day, over $10 million worth of Solana tokens had been invested in the effort, which Kero named SNAP.

A relatively unknown NFT artist has surprised the crypto community by raising over $10 million in SOL +5.88% for a meme coin presale in less than a day.

The artist, pseudonymously known as Kero, launched the presale after polling their followers on X as to whether they should launch a coin on Solana in honor of joining the network. After receiving 5,000 votes on the poll, Kero launched the presale by posting a wallet address, which rapidly accumulated funds eventually totaling nearly 55,000 SOL, or about $10.4 million at current prices.

Kero, after admitting they didn't have any idea what to make before launching the poll, eventually decided to name the coin SNAP in honor of their original meme character Coco, a crocodile drawn in the style of iconic meme character Pepe the Frog. Coco has featured in Kero's NFT output so far, several collections of digital trading cards in the style of famous works of art, memes, and other elements of Internet culture.

According to The Block's analysis of blockchain data provided by Solscan, many of the contributions were for small amounts. The median contribution was 1 SOL, which is worth nearly double its value from just a few weeks ago amidst Solana's recent price surge. The average contribution was around 3.5 SOL, with a few wallets aping in hundreds of SOL.

The meme coin presale caused disbelief among other members of X's crypto community. "Literally nobody knows him. He just out [sic] an address on a tweet," wrote crypto trader Wizard of SoHo.

Kero hasn't announced a launch date for the coin, but recently noted that it won't launch until after 21:00 UTC (5 pm Eastern Time) on Sunday. "Due to the size and fast development we want to make sure we don't make any mistakes," Kero wrote.

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About Author

Zack Abrams is a writer and editor based in Brooklyn, New York. Before coming to The Block, he was the Head Writer at Coinage, a Web3 media outlet covering the biggest stories in Web3. The story he co-reported on Do Kwon won a 2022 Best in Business Journalism award from SABEW. Other projects included a deep dive into SBF's defense based on exclusive documents and unveiling the identity of the hacker behind one of 2023's biggest crypto hacks — so far. He can be reached via X @zackdabrams or email, [email protected].