How to buy and trade Solana memecoins

The whimsical concept of meme coins isn’t new, as the first meme coin ever (Dogecoin) was created back in 2013. Some people even argue that Bellscoin was the original meme coin even before the world had seen Dogecoin.

In the current cycle, however, meme coins launched on Solana have gained a lot of traction primarily due to platforms like Pump.fun, which made it incredibly easy to launch new tokens. 

This meant that anybody, without any technical knowledge of coding, smart contracts, and deployment can now create a tradeable pair for a nominal fee.

This led to a  surge in Solana meme coin traders, as is evident from data by Dune, which shows that the number of “Total Daily DEX Traders per Chain” is highest for Solana among all the other chains.

However, meme coins are like a double-edged sword. That is because Solana has very low transaction fees. For context, you can probably outrun most of the transactions on-chain by pumping up your priority fees to 0.009 SOL.

With that low of a fee, traders can buy and sell their meme coin bags much more frequently, which makes these coins extremely volatile. That has given birth to a new narrative, where Solana is referred to as a “skill-based gambling” platform by traders. 

As such, your investment can turn into millions of dollars or go to 0 within a span of a week, or even a day. Of course, most traders aren’t that lucky as it takes a whole lot of work (and luck) to spot the next mooner. We already have a guide on how to spot the next 100x meme coins.

Source: https://twitter.com/lookonchain/status/1838981404581142953

Given their volatile nature and lower liquidity pools, even regular technical analysis usually doesn’t work. 

Overall, the meme coin space is a PvP (player vs player) environment where you’re always up against another trader. It all comes down to selling your bags before others, at a profit or loss that you’re comfortable with.

How to buy and trade Solana memecoins

Earlier, developers used to manually deploy their tokens on Solana. With pump.fun, launching meme coins got much easier. A large number of recent runners like Moodeng, Billy, Michi, and DogWifHat were all launched on Pump.fun and got taken over by the community. 

How is meme coin trading different from regular trading?

Buying and trading Solana meme coins profitably requires a completely different set of skills in comparison with regular trading. In the case of meme coins, technical analysis and chart patterns hold far less importance than market sentiment. 

This is due to the fact that the liquidity pools for most coins are quite low. This means that a trader holding a significant percentage of the coin’s supply (more than 1%) can empty the entire liquidity pool in a single trade, and it happens very frequently in lower market cap tokens. 

In such cases, it’s usually the “dev” who buys in a significant chunk of supply during deployment, or a sniper/insider who gets in very early. As such, meme coins where a small number of traders hold a huge chunk of the supply are seen as a red flag. 

Since the market cap on these tokens is also lower than your traditional altcoins, the effect of slippage becomes more pronounced. This requires you to DCA in and out of your positions instead of buying/selling 100% in a single trade. 

That said, let’s look at how you can buy and trade Solana memecoins. 

Method 1: Trading with a Telegram sniper bot

Using Telegram sniper bots to trade meme coins is probably the most preferred method for advanced traders. These bots are designed to front-run transactions on Solana, which means that you can buy & sell your coins faster than others. 

Remember how we mentioned that Solana meme coins are PvP (player vs player)? Traders are always competing to be the earliest buyers in order to maximize their gains. And this is where Telegram bots shine. However, Telegram is also a hot-bed of crypto scams so it’s crucial to do your due diligence.

Two commonly used bots for Solana meme coins are Trojan and Pepeboost. Both have a similar interface. We’ll go with Trojan in this guide and use it to buy the meme coin DogWifHat.

Here are the steps to set up and buy coins with a Telegram bot like Trojan. 

1. Download the Telegram app on your desktop/phone and sign in. 
2. Open the Trojan bot (it will show up as a new conversation).
3. Hit the ‘START’ button to create a new wallet. 

4. Now go to Dexscreener.com and search for DogWifHat (make sure to choose the right pair, usually the one at the top).

5. Scroll down on the right bar, and copy the right contract address for the $WIF (dogwifhat) token as shown in the screenshot below.
6. Head back to the Trojan bot in Telegram, and click on the ‘Buy’ button.
7.  
8. Paste the copied contract address in the chat and press enter.

8. Set your desired buy amount, and slippage value (we recommend anything between 3% – 5% for more volatile tokens, and less than 1% for higher cap meme cons).

9. When you’re ready, hit the ‘BUY’ button. You can also choose Limit or DCA options from the same menu instead of spot Swap.

10. If your transaction goes through successfully, you will see a ‘Buy Success!’ message. 
11. Now hit the ‘Back’ button or enter “/start” in the chat to go back to the main menu. 

12. Press the ‘Positions’ button to see your meme coin portfolio. 
13. To sell your bags, simply choose a sell percentage and to swap immediately.

There’s also an option for MEV protection, along with Auto-buy and Auto-sell options for those who don’t want to waste a single second (especially when trading on very small time frames).

Besides that, there are many other settings that you can do to optimize your purchases. For instance, you can set custom priority fees to speed up your transactions. 

One downside of Trojan is that the integrated chart preview feature isn’t very efficient. You’ll also have to hit ‘Refresh’ constantly to view your profit and loss, as it does not update it automatically in real-time. 

Method 2: Trading with Photon

Photon is a trading platform that provides integrated tools to snipe tokens, and it is especially useful for beginners and those who spend hours scouting for new launches on Pump.fun. 

You can choose your preferred Dex, set filters to view new launches, and snipe them using a Solana wallet like Phantom. Here’s how you can buy and trade meme coins with Photon.

1. Open the Photon platform and connect a Solana wallet (such as Phantom) from your browser, and transfer your funds into Photon.
2. Since hundreds of meme coins get launched every minute, now you need to set certain filters to cut through the noise. 
3. In DEXes, we choose Pump.fun. You can also include Moonshot, which is another similar platform where new tokens are launched.

4. In other filters, we check Mint Auth, Freeze Auth, Top 10 Holders, and ‘With at least 1 social.’
5. Now click on the ‘Memescope’ button on the top bar. 

6. You will now see Pump.fun meme coins that are newly created, about to graduate, and those that have graduated to Raydium. 
7. You can also turn on the Quick Buy option and click on the Solana icon next to your preferred coin to purchase it instantly; however, we don’t recommend that. 
8. If you see a coin that looks interesting, click on it to open its chart and the buy menu.

9. Photon updates the charts in real time, and you can input your desired buying amount in the right column. Then, you can hit the ‘Quick Buy’ button. 
10. Selling is also straightforward. Simply switch to the ‘Sell’ tab on the right bar, input your desired sell amount, and proceed. 
11. To withdraw/transfer funds, click on the wallet icon at the top right of the screen and choose the ‘Withdraw’ tab. 

12. Enter the Solana amount that you want to withdraw, set a withdrawal address, and hit ‘Withdraw’. You can safely leave the Priority Fee on its default value.

Method 3: Trading with BullX

BullX is very similar to Photon. In fact, it is often considered as Photon 2.0 due to its similar features. However, traders often prefer it due to its generous rewards program for traders who have a high amount of volume. Here’s how you can trade meme coins with BullX. 

1. Head to the BullX platform and sign-in with your Telegram account. 
2. Similar to Photon, you can either set filters on the main screen or open a dedicated dashboard for Pump.fun meme coins from the left bar. 

3. You’ll now see an interface similar to Photon, with columns labeled ‘New Creations’, ‘About to Graduate’, and ‘Graduated.’

4. Under each column, you can set your desired filters by clicking on the ‘Filter’ button.
5. If you like a particular coin, click on it to open its chart and the buy menu. 

6. Just like Photon, you can see the points where the Dev bought (DB) and sold (DS) the supply. 
7. Once you’re ready to buy, input your desired amount of Solana in the buy menu, and click the Buy button. 
8. To sell your coins, simply switch to the ‘Sell’ button and input the amount of tokens you want to offload.

Researching and finding high potential Meme Coins

To find high potential meme coins, all you have to do is stay updated with world events, and in some cases, try to front-run narratives that may pop off in the future. 

However, it is also often the case where a seemingly dying token will end up mooning unexpectedly due to a mention from a famous influencer or celebrity. As such, you need to be early in all such opportunities in order to maximize your gains. And that is easier said than done. 

Using DEXSCREENER filters

Your first step should be DexScreener. Here’s how you can use it to increase your chances of hitting a 100x, or even a 1000x trade. 

1. Open DexScreener.com to view the currently traded coins. 
2. Choose ‘Solana’ from the bar on the left side of the screen. 

3. Now, you need to set the time-frame to ‘Last 5 minutes’ to view new launches.

4. Click on the ‘VOLUME’ button to rank the coins based on their trading volume in descending order. 

5. Now analyze the chart patterns across different time-frames to catch potential reversals. It also helps you understand the overall sentiment about the coin. 

It is important to check the trading activity on the 5-minute time-frame. Often, if the volume is considerably high as compared to the coin’s market cap, it is a bullish sign. That suggests a growth in interest among the investors. 

However, you need to be very cautious about coins with low market caps, as they tend to be unstable and much more volatile.

Analyze hype and sentiments on social media

Now that you’ve pin-pointed a potential mooner, it is time to analyze the hype and sentiment behind the project on social media. When it comes to Solana meme coins, Twitter is your go-to place. 

To start with, check if the coin has any socials listed on DexScreener. In this case, we’re looking at MOODENG/SOL, which has listed its Website, Twitter, and Telegram links. 

It is usually very easy to tell if a coin’s growth is organic or botted just by looking at its engagement on Twitter. 

You can also search the coin’s name on Twitter and see the overall sentiments that the community/investors have. Take time to read through the tweets, opinions, and discussions around the coin. 

Such as in this case, searching “Moodeng” on Twitter brought up countless new posts with great engagement. This is usually a sign of growing investor interest, and confidence in the coin. 

Remember, when it comes to meme coins, the earlier you are to spot a developing narrative, the better your gains. However, eventually, the growth of every coin is bound to become stagnant (when there are no new buyers). 

If you end up buying at that point, you turn yourself into exit liquidity for traders who got in much earlier. Generally, it is much safer to catch community-backed memecoins while they are on a dip, rather than chasing new narratives to avoid burning your portfolio.

How to avoid rug-pulls and scams

Rug pulls and scam launches are extremely common in the Solana meme coin space. The very first step is to ensure if a coin passes all the basic security checks. For that, all you need to do is verify the coin’s contract address on rugcheck.xyz.

If everything looks good, head to bubblemaps.io and check if the coin’s supply has been bundled. This is to ensure that no single person or an entity is holding a huge percentage of the coin’s supply. Usually, coins with a high percentage of bundled wallets are riskier. 

While these two steps are considered essential for due diligence, they aren’t always enough. That is because scam launches on Solana can also involve various deceptive marketing tactics, such as stealth wallets by KOLs (key opinion leaders) and insiders. 

These wallets won’t always show up on Bubblemaps.io because they aren’t directly linked to each other. Rather, such wallets are usually funded directly from an exchange, and they purchase a huge supply without establishing a single point of connection. 

In fact, some professional scammers even use bots that are automated for this kind of activity. These bots are capable of generating fake volume from side wallets to draw investor interest. When the market cap reaches a sufficient value, the scammer then dumps the entire supply in a single go, from all the wallets. These are classic cases of bundled launches. 

To spot a bundled launch, you need a more thorough analysis of all the earliest transactions on a particular token. See if you can establish a link between the earliest buyers of a coin. Often, these links can be established by looking at any previous transfers or common sources of funds.