Crypto Investor Nets 2,554x Return on a $1,300 Hippo-Themed Meme Coin Bet in Just Two Weeks

A crypto investor has turned a $1,300 investment into a staggering $3.4 million in just two weeks by betting on the hippo-themed Moo Deng (MOODENG) token.

The story first came to light after on-chain analytics firm Lookonchain identified the trader’s activity on the Solana blockchain.

According to data from blockchain explorer Solscan, the investor initially spent 9.8 Solana, worth approximately $1,331 at the time, to purchase 38.7 million MOODENG tokens on September 10.

$1K Investment Turns Into $3.4 Million

In the following two weeks, the value of the Moo Deng token soared exponentially, transforming the modest investment into a $3.4 million fortune.

While this incredible return captured the attention of the crypto community, it also raised questions about the legitimacy of the gain.

Critics pointed out that the MOODENG liquidity pool holds only $1.8 million, making it nearly impossible for the investor to cash out the entire amount at the current market price without significantly impacting the token’s value.

its not really 3.4M if there is only 1.8M of liquidity in the whole pool, bro.

— Seth Pratt (@sethprattcrypto) September 25, 2024

Furthermore, the rapid rise in value has sparked suspicions, with some suggesting that insider trading or developer manipulation might be involved.

Nevertheless, this incident is not an isolated case.

On September 26, Lookonchain reported another instance where a trader turned a $95 investment in INCEPT tokens into $96,900 within just 12 hours.

The analytics firm noted that most of the wallet addresses that recently made such high returns on INCEPT investments appeared to be “insider wallets,” further raising concerns about potential market manipulation.

Unbelievable!😱

Turned $95 into $96.9K in just 12 hours—more than a 1000x return!

Many of the wallets that made ~1000x profit on $INCEPT appear to be insider wallets. They were all created 4 days ago and have only traded $INCEPT.https://t.co/AvNHFbRjpO pic.twitter.com/aOm3z1VXAx

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) September 26, 2024

In another instance, an investor netted $131.72 million from investing in Ether during the 2022 bear market.

This investor purchased 96,639 ETH from Coinbase in early September 2022, when Ether was trading around $1,567, and held on through market fluctuations for two years.

Crypto Market Rallies Amid Bullish Sentiment

The crypto market has surged amid a broader bullish sentiment across global risk markets.

“It’s all green lights for global risk markets as U.S. equities hit new all-time highs for the third time this week,” said Augustine Fan, Head of Insights at SOFA.org.

“The rally has been fueled by rapid stimulus measures to revive the struggling Chinese economy, which has led renowned macro observers to turn explicitly bullish on all risk assets in the interim. The synchronized global easing move is reminiscent of the easy-money days of the QE era.”

Over the past day, Bitcoin’s price climbed 2.9% to $65,330.96, its highest level since late July.

Ether also saw gains, rising 1.8% to $2,648.