NEIRO, a meme coin launched on the Solana blockchain, is under scrutiny following allegations of insider trading and market manipulation.
Recent analyses by BubbleMaps and LookOnChain have unveiled troubling details about the token’s distribution and trading practices, which indicate a massive potential rug pull.
Strategic Distribution to Control Massive Portion of the NEIRO Token
On July 27, NEIRO’s launch was marked by the rapid acquisition of 78% of its supply by 80 addresses. These insiders spread the tokens across 400 different addresses to obscure their control and profits.
Despite these efforts, BubbleMaps estimated that 11.7% of the supply has been sold, totaling approximately $4.5 million at an average market cap of $40 million.
The initial pre-allocation and subsequent trading behavior have triggered widespread allegations of insider manipulation, which, based on all recent reports and analysis, is most likely to be the case.
$NEIRO on ETH (@neiro_ethereum) is heavily controlled ⚠️
78% of the supply was sniped at launch and spread out among many wallets.
Insiders already made $4.5M and still own 66% 🧵 ↓ pic.twitter.com/dEwiuE3Gu2
— Bubblemaps (@bubblemaps) July 30, 2024
BubbleMaps conducted an exhaustive analysis of over 10,000 NEIRO transactions on the Ethereum blockchain. Their findings revealed a highly concentrated ownership, with 78% of the supply distributed across 350 wallets.
This result of the on-chain analysis suggests deliberate efforts by insiders to maintain dominance over the token’s circulation and value.
Insiders sold approximately $4 million of NEIRO through 2,500 meticulously executed transactions.
These sales were spread across multiple decentralized exchanges (DEX) and centralized exchanges (CEX), including Uniswap V2, V3, 0x, Kyber, Lbank, MXC, and Poloniex.
Through these various platforms, the insiders further obscured their transactions and distributed their sales, making it challenging to track the full extent of their activities.
Developer Profited $2.85M Amid Allegations of Insider Trading
The dev of $Neiro has made 15,508 $SOL($2.85M) with only 3 $SOL($552), a gain of 5,169x!😱
He spent 3 $SOL($552) to buy 97.5M $Neiro when deploying $Neiro.
Then he sold 68M $Neiro for 15,511 $SOL($2.85M) through multiple wallets, with a realized profit of 15,508 $SOL($2.85M).… pic.twitter.com/0PBP6gpJ0e
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) July 28, 2024
Further investigation by LookOnChain revealed that the NEIRO developer made an astonishing 5,169x return on their initial investment. The developer purchased 97.5 million NEIRO tokens for just 3 SOL ($552) and later sold 68 million NEIRO through multiple wallets, realizing a 15,508 SOL ($2.85 million) profit.
Additionally, the developer sent 10 million NEIRO to a dead wallet, leaving them with an unrealized profit of $1.8 million from the remaining 19.5 million tokens.
This massive profit margin has not only led to suspicions of a potential rug pull, a type of exit scam where insiders sell a large portion of their token holdings and abandon the project.
However, as of the time of writing, the coin is still trading at $0.15, which has increased by 3.90% in the last 24 hours. Despite exceeding a $100 million market cap milestone, NEIRO’s growth is heavily influenced by insider control.
On July 27, the same day as the token’s launch, 80 addresses simultaneously sniped 77.7% of the supply, each holding around 1% to avoid detection. Insiders have already realized $4.5 million in profits while controlling 66% of the supply.
Further insights from iCrypto identified Wallet 0xfbe1 as a potential insider wallet. Shortly after its creation, this wallet purchased $50 worth of NEIRO (10 million tokens), which has since surged by 2,200%.
The community is still expecting a response from the team, but no announcement on the allegations has been given yet, indicating more potential rug pull.
While small compared to last year, fraud, scams, and rug pulls constituted only 1.1% ($3 million) of the total losses over two incidents as of July 2024. Despite the dominance of hacks this year, these rug pulls also threaten the integrity of the industry at large.
