M Plummets 76% Amid Pump-and-Dump Allegations
Memecore (M), a token previously flagged by online sleuth ZachXBT, flash-crashed Thursday, sliding from $2.64 to $0.50 as pump-and-dump allegations rocked the project. Although the token rebounded to trade around $0.80 at the time of writing (4:50 a.m. EST), M was still down 76% over a 24-hour period, making it one of the day’s top losing tokens.
In fact, M’s abrupt plunge erased minutes of steady gains accumulated since Jan. 1, when it traded just above $1.50. Overall, the token’s drop wiped nearly $3 billion off M’s value, causing its market capitalization to plummet to $900 million.
At its peak on April 24, M traded above $4.50, translating to a market capitalization exceeding $6 billion—a valuation that heightened scrutiny of the project. At the time, ZachXBT accused unknown insiders of manipulating M’s price to reach that valuation. A few days later, the token plunged below $4, wiping out more than $1 billion in value, but the carnage was contained as M managed to hold just below $3 until June 24.
Reacting to the token’s plunge, ZachXBT took aim at Memecore CGO Rudy Rong’s April 20 post on X, in which Rong boasted about his ties to the U.S. political elite.
“How many retail investors lost funds due to the MemeCore teams M manipulation? You are not welcome in the US. Go back to your home country. Only let in the US because one of your parents is a foreign billionaire. Not a single person would miss you if you disappeared tomorrow, only your $$$,” ZachXBT said in a reply that included a chart depicting the token’s spectacular drop.
Security platform Web3 Antivirus said the token’s price action serves as a reminder that a large fully diluted valuation (FDV) does not equal a healthy market.
“MemeCore reportedly crashed more than 75% on centralized exchanges in a few hours, falling from around $14B FDV to under $4B. Researchers had already flagged concerns around concentrated supply, inorganic activity and weak onchain depth. The latest coverage also points to no BSC transfer above $50K in more than 2 weeks and less than $100K in total onchain liquidity on BSC,” Web3 Antivirus said in a post on X.
Meanwhile, other social media users reignited the debate over the role large centralized exchanges play in enabling projects with dubious tokenomics.
“Why did Kraken, Binance, and Bitget list a token where over 90% of the supply was controlled by insiders, especially after RAVE followed the same playbook and later crashed 95%?” one user asked.
The user added that by placing a “verified listing” stamp on projects like Memecore and Rave, centralized exchanges are complicit in rug-pulling retail investors.
