Meme Coin Mania: How to Spot Meme Coins with Growth Potential?

In early 2024, meme coins showcased remarkable growth: PEPE's value increased fivefold, BONK quadrupled, and DOGE doubled in price. Moreover, the market welcomed newcomers like BOME, which saw its price triple or even quadruple in March alone.

This renewed wave of interest in meme coins led hundreds of enthusiasts to embark on their meme project ventures. Unfortunately, many of these will prove to be scams, while others may fade into obscurity. However, the small fraction that “survives” could potentially see a 5-10-fold increase in value. Thus, investors cannot afford to overlook this segment.

Pay attention to the following four strategies that could assist you in finding your next big gain in the meme token market.

The Crypto Community

The driving force behind any meme coin is its community. Meme tokens typically don't tackle blockchain challenges such as reducing transaction costs or speeding up transactions. Their purpose centers on user engagement. The larger and more dynamic the community, the greater the likelihood of the asset’s value increasing.

• X (formerly Twitter). Keep an eye on assets generating buzz on X, utilizing the “Trends for you”. Craft an information space with lists of influencers who specialize exclusively in meme coins.
• Discord and Telegram. Niche Discord servers and Telegram groups serve as hotbeds for crypto enthusiasts. They often spotlight the most talked-about meme coins in these communities. 
• Reddit. Useful for evaluating a meme coin’s security, team, and potential for growth. Compared to other platforms, news about the asset typically surfaces on Reddit a bit later.

Evidently, a project’s community develops incrementally. Post-launch, a meme coin's X account might struggle to reach over 100 followers. Yet, this doesn't necessarily indicate the asset's weakness.

Focus on the following metrics to gauge the growth dynamics of the project's social media presence:

• The rate of new subscriber acquisition over a specific timeframe;
• The frequency at which the X account is mentioned by mainstream media;
• The ratio of active audience members.

For further analysis of the community, TwitterScore is employed—a web service that offers information on the presence of funds, as well as influencers in subscriptions. Additionally, this platform calculates the total popularity score of an X account, where 50 points is considered optimal.

DEX Aggregators

Before a meme coin makes its way onto platforms like CoinGecko, CoinMarketCap, or other blockchain data aggregators, its value could potentially increase by five to ten times. Therefore, if you're aiming to discover a meme coin right after its inception, services such as DEX Screener, Birdeye, or DEXTools should be on your radar.

These platforms offer insights into newly created tokens, trading pairs, liquidity available, trading volumes, and other relevant data across Ethereum, Solana, Arbitrum, and other networks. Furthermore, they provide links to official X (Twitter) accounts, project websites, contract addresses, and also audit information for specific tokens.

Interface of the BONK/SOL trading pair page. Source: dexscreener.com

Working with such services is about filtering meme coins according to specific criteria. Strategies vary depending on risk, position size, and trade duration.

For instance, filtering criteria on DEX Screener might include:

• Trending: last 6 hours;
• Pair age: 24 hours;
• Trading volume: a minimum of $100,000.

Leverage the functionalities of multiple platforms and incorporate additional tools for a more thorough analysis. For example, after identifying potentially profitable meme coins, assess their risk of a Rug Pull event using tools like RugCheck.

Tracking Market Whales through Their Wallets

Blockchain technology offers a public ledger that details the sender and recipient addresses, transaction amounts, and timings. This feature unveils a novel approach to trading by enabling the tracking and emulation of capital flows from major market participants, or “whales”.

For traders seeking to pinpoint such information, blockchain explorers like Etherscan or Solscan are invaluable resources. Yet, the sheer volume of raw data these platforms present can make the search for major players challenging. This is where services like DEX Screener come into play, offering a more streamlined method of discovery.

DEX Screener's Interface. Source: dexscreener.com

Here's a strategy for leveraging DEX Screener to spot a whale:

1. Input the ticker of an asset that has significantly appreciated, such as PEPE, WIF, BONK, or other meme coins that many might have overlooked;
2. Navigate to the “Top Traders” section;
3. Find a wallet address with a high ratio of investment to profit;
4. Use a blockchain explorer to check the current balance of this wallet. Wallets with balances exceeding $500,000 are typically considered whales.

Create a separate database (such as an Excel spreadsheet) to record the activity of such wallets. Use web services like Arkham or Nansen as tools to track the actions of relevant addresses.

Keep in mind that whales might disguise themselves as regular users by distributing their assets across multiple wallets to cover their tracks. Nevertheless, their transactions can still be traced:

• Go to a blockchain explorer, Arkham or Nansen;
• Pay attention to the outgoing transactions from the whale, with roughly equal volumes;
• Track the subsequent actions of the recipient addresses.

If the recipients exhibit a similar pattern of behavior, you've likely found a whale. Continue monitoring these wallets for their next purchases of meme coins with growth potential.

Sniper Bots

Success in meme coin trading closely relates to the speed at which decisions are made and executed. While the previously mentioned resources assist in decision-making, sniper bots facilitate the execution phase. These bots allow users to purchase tokens in just a few clicks directly via their Telegram accounts.

As of April 2024, Solana emerges as the preferred blockchain for meme coin creation. Solscan reports reveal that in the first week of April alone, Solana saw the launch of 37,863 new tokens!

This preference for assets on the Solana network has prompted the development of sniper bots, whose functionalities extend beyond mere meme coin trading.

New SPL Tokens from March to April. Source: solscan.io

Among the Solana blockchain's most favored sniper bots are:

• SolTradingBot;
• bonkbot_bot;
• Photon Sol.

Each of these bots not only enables the acquisition of assets but also offers lists of newly minted meme coins. Depending on the bot, this list might include details such as the ticker, liquidity pool information, token distribution, and a safety checklist for the asset.

To find such lists, in SolTradingBot, click on “New Pair Bot”; in bonkbot_bot, head to “Alerts” and then choose “New Pools”. With Photon Sol, information about new assets is accessible on the project's website.

Conclusion

People tend to overestimate unlikely events. Popular tokens like PEPE, DOGE, WIF, and others account for less than 1% of all the meme coins ever created. The vast majority, 99%, have lingered in obscurity, their value almost nil today.

There's no certainty that a meme coin bought today will surge 5–10 times in value in the future. Be mindful of the risks and undertake thorough research before making any investment decisions in these assets.