FOMO and panic buying cost meme coin traders millions

Although the meme coin frenzy has made several millionaires this month, some traders have suffered significant losses due to fear of missing out and panic trading. 

The market has seen an unprecedented rally of new Solana-based meme coins in March. Since last week, 33 Solana meme coin presales have raised nearly $150 million in investments.

One example is Book of Meme (BOME), launched just a week ago and surged over 18,000%. As a result, many traders who invested in the presale saw million-dollar returns. Another Solana-based meme token, Slerf, surged over 100% in two days, as many investors retained millions in just minutes of trading. 

I was interested to see how much SOL has been sent as a result of the presale meta and calculated >655,000 SOL ($122.5M) raised from 27 presales. pic.twitter.com/dvsW4TSoov

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) March 19, 2024

However, several traders, driven by the fear of missing out, have been panic-buying these tokens at peak prices, only to experience massive losses. One trader experienced a staggering loss of $775,000. within just an hour by trading SLERF. 

FOMO Buying is very dangerous!

This trader lost 3,731 $SOL($775K) in just 1 hour by trading $SLERF!

He spent 5,004 $SOL to buy 790,236 $SLERF at $1.32(the highest price point).

The price of $SLERF began to plummet after his purchase.

When $SLERF rose again, he spent another… pic.twitter.com/tOATfeJynj

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) March 18, 2024

Ultimately, the trader sold all of his holdings. Another trader invested $1 million in SLERF, only to lose nearly a quarter of the investment yesterday. 

Not everyone can make money by trading #memecoins on #Solana!

This guy traded 11 #memecoins in 3 days, losing money on each one, for a total loss of 754 $SOL($147K).

He seems to be very #FOMO, always buying high and selling low.https://t.co/lxijIqGLZC pic.twitter.com/f7KfOf5i17

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) March 17, 2024

Lookonchain also observed a trader who lost money on 11 different meme coins over three days due to constant fear of missing out (FOMO) driven decisions, culminating in a total loss of $147,000. However, panic trading wasn’t limited to meme coins. A trader lost nearly $40 million by constantly selling Bitcoin, which has declined over the past week.