Spend $285 to win $620,000! Mysterious trader "buy low, sell high" $ZREAL faces insider trading allegations

In the world of cryptocurrency, wealth and being cut off are often separated by just a thin line. On January 19, a mysterious wallet closely associated with meme coin $ZREAL first invested $285 in the token during its early launch phase, then took advantage of retail investors’ frenzy by selling off, ultimately earning a profit of $627,000. This not only sparked heated discussion within the community but also cast a shadow of “insider trading” and “whale manipulation” over the meme coin craze once again.

On-chain data analysis platform Lookonchain pointed out that this trader is actually an “insider” of the $ZREAL project team, who precisely entered when the token was just launched and still at the “floor price,” purchasing 66.3 million tokens. Later, as the token price climbed, they gradually sold about 10 million tokens, cashing out approximately $210,000. The remaining 46.3 million tokens still stay in the wallet, with an unrealized profit (floating gain) of about $417,000.

Further on-chain data corroborated the “dumping” allegations. Records show that within 10 hours, the wallet疯狂发送了数百笔市价卖单，让接盘的散户成了待宰羔羊。

This type of insider trader is known in crypto slang as a “sniper.” Usually, project teams will secretly reveal the contract address or issuance time to specific individuals before the official launch, allowing them to use high-frequency trading bots to buy in advance at very low costs. When ordinary retail investors see the price surge and rush in, they sell at high prices, easily harvesting profits.

This kind of “sniping” behavior caused a huge stir in early 2025. At that time, Hayden Davis revealed on the well-known investigative journalist Coffeezilla’s podcast that he participated in the issuance and manipulation of several high-profile meme coins, including $MELANIA and $LIBRA .

Hayden Davis admitted that meme coins are essentially tools to “extract liquidity” from unaware retail investors. His words instantly made him a public enemy in the crypto community and exposed the brutal truth that meme coin trading is like the “Wild West,” lawless and full of scheming.

Although the meme coin frenzy that swept the market early last year has significantly cooled down, recent signs indicate a small-scale market rebound.

For example, the popular meme coin issuance platform Pump.fun saw a single-day trading volume once surpassing $1.2 billion earlier this month; since its launch on Sunday, the official X social media account has quickly gained over 7,000 followers, with 24-hour trading volume soaring to $18 million.

However, behind this prosperity lies great risk. Blockchain security firm Solidus Labs released a report in May last year, stating that up to 98% of the tokens issued on Pump.fun are fraudulent.